Effect of Agricultural Sustainability on Food Security of Rural Households in Iran

Population growth and loss of environmental capacities for food production have rendered the realization of food security a more complicated task as compared to the previous decades. To cope with this crisis, sustainable agricultural development can play a remarkable role in improving food security. The present study aimed to explore the spatial effects of agricultural sustainability on food security of rural households in 30 provinces of Iran over the period of 2006-2016. For this purpose, first, the overall level of agricultural sustainability using a Composite Sustainable Agriculture Index (ICSA) and weighting indicators were calculated based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The Aggregate Household Food Security Index (AHFSI) was used to determine the food security of households in rural areas. Also, the effectiveness of agricultural sustainability on food security of rural families, as well as other effective factors, was examined using the mixed Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) model with panel data. Results show that the spatial spillovers of the agricultural sustainability influence food security positively and significantly. In fact, 1% increase in the agricultural sustainability index of a certain province directly improves food security of the same province by 0.043%, while its food security is indirectly enhanced by 0.0131% with 1% increase in the agricultural sustainability index of other provinces. It is imperative for policymakers of the agricultural sector to invest in production infrastructure of different provinces in Iran and focus on enhancing sustainable production as a prerequisite for the establishment of sustainable food security.