Evaluating the preferences and level of participation of the academic community in urban agriculture: the case of University of Sistan and Baluchestan

Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad, P. Golchin
{"title":"Evaluating the preferences and level of participation of the academic community in urban agriculture: the case of University of Sistan and Baluchestan","authors":"Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad, P. Golchin","doi":"10.52547/ENVS.37159","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Edible Campus is a kind of university’s green space which incorporates edible, medicinal, and pollinator-friendly plants to create a kind of working landscapes and facilitate campus community engagement in topics of food and agriculture sustainability. In this regards, inventory of community support and culture is crucial for finding the motivation of participating the targeted community in edible landscape project. This study aims to give insights into the inventory of community support and preferences in campus edible landscape. To achieve this objective we considered the University of Sistan and Baluchstan as the case study to address the community support and community culture that affecting urban agriculture. While the study on urban agriculture projects can be conducted during three phases, this study focused on the pre-implementation stage. It means that the authors tried to co-create visions of the edible campus, specifically for the University of Sistan and Baluchestan to be used for the next step of the edible campus project. Material and methods: In this research, which is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of method, from a total of 18,450 university population (including 17,000 students, 1,000 staff and 450 faculty members), using stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment, using specialized software for determining the sample size of PASS, the sample of 530 people was selected. The questionnaires were completed through the Google form survey in spring and summer 2020. All inferential statistical analyzes in this article was performed by SPSS23. For research questions and objectives in the descriptive statistics section, graphs and statistical tables have been used. Due to the high sample size (n=530), the normal probability plots (p-p plots) were used, instead of Shapiro-Wilk or Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, to check the normality of data distribution, so that the normality of the research variables was not confirmed by p-p plots. Therefore, non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon and Friedman were used to test the research hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05. Results and discussion: The results showed the mental health and nutrition of food produced in the university are the most important motivations of the studied community in edible campus participation. It also found that potential volunteers are not a monolithic group. There were statistically significant differences in the frequency of expression of potential volunteer motivations among respondent demographic segments. Based on the findings of our study the more interested group in term of potential volunteerism were students, females, and 20-30 aged groups. On the other side our study proved that the potential volunteerism capacity of university community will not be enough for the establishment and sustaining the edible campus. Concerning the spatial structure and landscape elements, based on the results of this study an establishment of agricultural space and fruit orchard (82.3%), and water fountain and pool (75.3%) would provide studied community with the desirable edible campus. In this regards, our study suggest to incorporate three types of edible bearing plants including fruit trees, vegetables, and medicinal herbs in the upcoming edible campus project. Conclusion: Iranian university managers can use data like this to help shape the community culture and support of their university to a more inclusive and diverse edible campus makeup. Additionally, these findings may contribute to the study and practice of edible campus management by suggesting means for more effective member recruitment based on the particular motivations of different member demographics. In the case of University of Sistan and Baluchestan considerable staff and volunteer time will be needed to ensure consistent landscape care. It is also essential that university managers and decision-makers attempt to provide potential volunteers with appropriate training opportunities, resources, as well as demonstrate appreciation, to further encourage and solidify volunteer-engagement in edible campus.","PeriodicalId":11919,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.52547/ENVS.37159","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction: Edible Campus is a kind of university’s green space which incorporates edible, medicinal, and pollinator-friendly plants to create a kind of working landscapes and facilitate campus community engagement in topics of food and agriculture sustainability. In this regards, inventory of community support and culture is crucial for finding the motivation of participating the targeted community in edible landscape project. This study aims to give insights into the inventory of community support and preferences in campus edible landscape. To achieve this objective we considered the University of Sistan and Baluchstan as the case study to address the community support and community culture that affecting urban agriculture. While the study on urban agriculture projects can be conducted during three phases, this study focused on the pre-implementation stage. It means that the authors tried to co-create visions of the edible campus, specifically for the University of Sistan and Baluchestan to be used for the next step of the edible campus project. Material and methods: In this research, which is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of method, from a total of 18,450 university population (including 17,000 students, 1,000 staff and 450 faculty members), using stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment, using specialized software for determining the sample size of PASS, the sample of 530 people was selected. The questionnaires were completed through the Google form survey in spring and summer 2020. All inferential statistical analyzes in this article was performed by SPSS23. For research questions and objectives in the descriptive statistics section, graphs and statistical tables have been used. Due to the high sample size (n=530), the normal probability plots (p-p plots) were used, instead of Shapiro-Wilk or Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, to check the normality of data distribution, so that the normality of the research variables was not confirmed by p-p plots. Therefore, non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon and Friedman were used to test the research hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05. Results and discussion: The results showed the mental health and nutrition of food produced in the university are the most important motivations of the studied community in edible campus participation. It also found that potential volunteers are not a monolithic group. There were statistically significant differences in the frequency of expression of potential volunteer motivations among respondent demographic segments. Based on the findings of our study the more interested group in term of potential volunteerism were students, females, and 20-30 aged groups. On the other side our study proved that the potential volunteerism capacity of university community will not be enough for the establishment and sustaining the edible campus. Concerning the spatial structure and landscape elements, based on the results of this study an establishment of agricultural space and fruit orchard (82.3%), and water fountain and pool (75.3%) would provide studied community with the desirable edible campus. In this regards, our study suggest to incorporate three types of edible bearing plants including fruit trees, vegetables, and medicinal herbs in the upcoming edible campus project. Conclusion: Iranian university managers can use data like this to help shape the community culture and support of their university to a more inclusive and diverse edible campus makeup. Additionally, these findings may contribute to the study and practice of edible campus management by suggesting means for more effective member recruitment based on the particular motivations of different member demographics. In the case of University of Sistan and Baluchestan considerable staff and volunteer time will be needed to ensure consistent landscape care. It is also essential that university managers and decision-makers attempt to provide potential volunteers with appropriate training opportunities, resources, as well as demonstrate appreciation, to further encourage and solidify volunteer-engagement in edible campus.
评价学术界对都市农业的偏好和参与程度:以锡斯坦大学和俾路支斯坦大学为例
简介:可食用校园是一种大学的绿色空间,它融合了可食用、药用和授粉友好的植物,以创造一种工作景观,促进校园社区参与食品和农业可持续发展的主题。在这方面,社区支持和文化的清单对于找到目标社区参与可食用景观项目的动机至关重要。本研究旨在了解社区对校园食用景观的支持和偏好。为了实现这一目标,我们将锡斯坦大学和俾路支大学作为案例研究,以解决影响城市农业的社区支持和社区文化问题。城市农业项目的研究可以分三个阶段进行,但本研究侧重于实施前阶段。这意味着作者试图共同创造可食用校园的愿景,特别是锡斯坦大学和俾路支斯坦大学,用于可食用校园项目的下一步。材料与方法:本研究在目的上运用,在方法上运用描述性,从总共18450所大学人口中(其中学生17000人,教职工1000人,教职工450人),采用比例分配的分层随机抽样方法,使用专门的PASS样本量确定软件,抽取530人的样本。这些问卷是在2020年春夏通过谷歌表格调查完成的。本文所有推论统计分析均采用SPSS23进行。对于描述性统计部分的研究问题和目标,使用了图表和统计表。由于样本量大(n=530),我们使用正态概率图(p-p图)来检验数据分布的正态性,而不是使用Shapiro-Wilk或Kolmogorov-Smirnov检验,因此研究变量的正态性不能用p-p图来证实。因此,采用Mann-Whitney、Wilcoxon、Friedman等非参数检验对研究假设进行检验,显著性水平为0.05。结果与讨论:结果显示,大学生产的食品的心理健康和营养是被研究社区参与可食用校园活动的最重要动机。研究还发现,潜在的志愿者并不是一个单一的群体。在被调查者的人口统计中,潜在志愿者动机的表达频率有统计学上的显著差异。根据我们的研究结果,对潜在的志愿服务更感兴趣的群体是学生、女性和20-30岁的群体。另一方面,我们的研究证明,大学社区潜在的志愿服务能力不足以建立和维持可食用校园。在空间结构和景观要素方面,根据研究结果,农业空间和果园(82.3%)以及饮水机和水池(75.3%)的建立将为研究社区提供理想的食用校园。在这方面,我们的研究建议在即将到来的可食用校园项目中加入果树、蔬菜和草药三种可食用的有果植物。结论:伊朗的大学管理者可以利用这样的数据来帮助塑造社区文化,并支持他们的大学,使其成为一个更具包容性和多样性的可食用校园。此外,这些发现可能有助于研究和实践可食用校园管理,建议更有效的方法,根据不同的会员人口统计的特定动机招募会员。在锡斯坦大学和俾路支斯坦大学的案例中,需要大量的工作人员和志愿者时间来确保持续的景观护理。同样重要的是,大学管理者和决策者试图为潜在的志愿者提供适当的培训机会和资源,并表示感谢,以进一步鼓励和巩固志愿者在可食用校园的参与。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信