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

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.