Peri-urban agriculture and its effect on food security:Analysis of the viewpoint of Farmers in suburbs of Noorabad-e-Mamassani city

Today, considerable interest in urban agriculture is being manifested by policy makers, government agencies and academics due to its contribution to food security and poverty alleviation in cities. Therefore, this research has evaluated the farmers’ viewpoints regarding peri-urban agriculture in Noorabad city with an emphasis on the dimensions of food security. The study population consisted of peri-urban farmers of Noorabad who had at least two hectares of cultivated land. Based on the sampling table of Bartlett and colleague, 123 people were selected and distributed randomly with proportional assignment. The findings showed that the studied farmers evaluated urban agriculture in improving the dimensions of effective food security, but the diversity of views was seen among them. Therefore, the studied farmers were classified into two groups (negative evaluator and positive evaluator) using cluster analysis. The findings also showed that these two groups have different attitudes toward urban agriculture. On the other hand, the results showed that there is a direct and significant relationship between the impact of urban agriculture on improving the dimensions of food security (availability, availability, utilization and stability) with the attitude towards urban agriculture.