Analysis of Constrains Facing Urban Agriculture Development in Tehran, Iran

The purpose of the study was to identify the constrainsaffecting urban agriculture in Tehran, Iran. The statisticalpopulation of this study consisted of city dwellers within the 22municipal districts of Tehran out of which 320 individuals wereselected as the sample of the study. Cochran’s formula was usedto determine the sampling size based on stratified samplingmethod. A panel of experts confirmed the validity of the questionnaireused in this study. The calculated Cronbach’s alpha forthe main sections of the questionnaire was 0.95 and 0.93. Resultsof the ranking of constrains and challenges revealed that “highstart-up costs” and “lack of knowledge among managers andauthorities” were among the most important constrains. Theresults of factor analysis revealed that 7 factors including “education-research”, “infrastructure”, “support”, “regulations andpolicy making”, “technical”, “financial-economic” and “cultural”explained 67.36 of the variance. Although list of constrainsrevealed is not perfect, this work paves the way for furtherresearch regarding factors influencing urban agriculture. It alsoprovides interesting information for planners about the challengesof urban agriculture development.