Major challenges to achieving food security in rural, Iran

ABSTRACT Ensuring food security is one of the Millennium development goals, with most developing countries endeavouring to alleviate hunger levels. Indeed, 923 million individuals are undernourished in the world. Furthermore, United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organisation report a large majority of food-insecure individuals live in rural areas of developing and less developed countries, making it more crucial to study the various challenges to food security in rural areas. This research investigates the major challenges to food security in rural areas of Iran using the Delphi technique run in three rounds with a panel of experts consisting of 27 academic faculty members in the field of food security, rural development, agriculture, and executive staff. Findings identified eight categories as main challenges to food security: policy, economic, knowledge and information, infrastructural, cultural, access to food, climate conditions, and social challenges.