Food Security and Factors Affecting it in Rural Societies of Bushehr Province.

Nowadays, food security is one of the most important concerns of different societies. This concern has especially important in rural areas which are themselves producers of food products. This study has investigated food security and factors affecting it in rural areas of Busher Province. Necessary data were collected by a sample of 380 households who were selected based on Krejcie and Morgan's Table. Data analysis was performed in descriptive and inferential statistics by SPSS18. The results indicated that more than 60% of households have food insecurity. Results also indicated that based on the Mc Carthy model, economic, geographical and social factors have the most effect on food insecurity. Based on the results of hierarchical regression, among the economic factors, the variables such as irrigated land, savings, and number of livestock, among the social factors, variables such as spouse literacy, number of children, dependency burden, and geographical factors, variables such as distance from agricultural sales center, sales through intermediaries and investment of urban people in the rural areas have a positive and significant effect on improving food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]