1. Introduction
One of the most important problems of the world in the 21st century is food security [
1]. In Iran, on one hand, providing food for the growing population requires a tremendous increase in the level of agricultural production [
2] and, on the other hand, given the importance of food security and the irreparable damage due to excessive use of agricultural chemicals, attention has been paid to organic farming [
3].
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) defines organic farming as a production system that maintains soil health, ecosystems, and humans. According to Lampkin, organic farming can be defined as “an approach to agriculture which aims at social, environmental and economic sustainability and animal welfare by minimizing the use of external resources, maximizing the use of locally-derived renewable resources and agro-ecosystem management and using the market to compensate for internalizing external costs” [
4,
5]. Organic farming is based on minimizing the use of external inputs, fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides [
6].
As defined by the World Food Summit in 1996, “food security” exists when all people at all times have adequate physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their needs for a healthy and active life [
7]. Food security is a complex process that involves dimensions such as availability, access, utilization, and stability [
8].
Owing to the high population of 7 billion people in the world, the dispute over the ability of organic farming to feed the world is high. Generally, large biotechnology companies, especially those that benefit from the use of pesticides and genetically-modified seeds, have raised the question of whether organic farming can feed the world or not. According to the FAO, the applicability of organic farming on production is dependent on the previous farming systems. An over-simplification of the impact of the transition to organic farming on yields shows that, in developed countries, organic systems decrease yields; the range is dependent on the intensity of the external inputs used before conversion; in the so-called Green Revolution areas (irrigated lands), conversion to organic agriculture usually leads to almost identical yields; and in traditional rain-fed agriculture (with low external inputs), organic agriculture has the potential to increase yields [
9]. Evaluation of the benefits and limitations of organic agriculture on food security is complex. The effect of the transition to organic practices will depend on the farmer and farming society, their skills, and the resources accessible to them. Organic agriculture can increase productivity, especially in situations where farmers are vulnerable to food shortages; it can increase income through higher financial value, and lower prices paid for inputs, or the combinations of these three. The variety of production in organic agriculture decreases the risk of crop failure and relevant food security and economic problems [
10]. Organic agriculture is a sustainable and environmentally friendly production system that offers developing countries a wide range of economic, environmental, and social benefits. Although organic farming systems produce yields less than conventional agriculture, they are more profitable to farmers because consumers are willing to pay more [
11].
Organic agriculture has three dimensions—social, economic, and environmental—and these three dimensions can improve food security. In the social dimension, organic farming requires more compact work and has the potential to contribute to long-term employment in rural areas. Organic farming plays an important role in employment in rural areas because of the hiring of more seasonal workers and, given the increases in organic food sales, however, opportunities are likely to continue in the occupations related to organic foods. Organic farming promotes entrepreneurship and decreases immigration in rural areas, thus, it enables new and different groups in the society to be involved in agricultural activities and will help to improve employment. Additionally, organic farming recognizes the value of indigenous and traditional knowledge and combines indigenous knowledge with production procedures which enhances social capacity while empowering farmers and local communities, which is consistent with achieving food security [
9,
10,
12,
13,
14].
In the economic dimension, organic farming is a sustainable option for small farmers to improve food security and to enhance the overall performance of farm income, and it can be said that an increase in household income can increase food security. Organic farming reduces input costs besides the increase of the standards of living of small and marginal farmers [
12,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20,
21]. Organic farming is cost-effective for farmers due to the lack of usage of chemicals (due to its expensive price), turning to inexpensive methods, such as biological resources rather than chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Other reasons that persuade farmers towards organic farming is the raising of product prices and consequently-increased profits from the sale of these products and the lack of intermediaries to sell them [
22]. Organic farming uses existing local assets rather than consuming capital resources intensively, so poor farmers can improve their farm productivity and fertility while avoiding dependence on expensive external inputs. Organic farming can increase productivity and income, thus helping to improve food security. There are a large number of economic opportunities that lead to the increase of added value of organic products through processing and marketing activities and the improvement of food security in the long-term [
9,
12,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20,
23,
24].
In the environmental dimension, organic farming improves soil quality, secures farm future, and offers environmental protection. The fertile soil leads to stability and is effective in the production cycle. More nutrients given to the soil result in less soil erosion and increase soil biodiversity, which improves food security in the long-term [
20,
25,
26]. Additionally, in organic farming with minimum tillage, biological fertilizers, proper crop rotation and cover crops, green manure, etc., an increase in soil fertility occurs [
18]. Organic farming enhances food security by improving resistance to diseases and pests, combating desertification by reducing soil erosion and protecting water resources, and maintaining and improving environmental services. Avoiding chemical residues and pesticides and consuming fresh products, acquiring healthy diets, and taking advantage of the nutritional value of organic products are among other motivations that improve food security [
10,
13,
21,
23,
25,
26,
27].
Agricultural practices coupled with the widespread usage of chemical synthetic materials have a negative impacts on agricultural production and human welfare. According to the evidence, the main goal of the current agricultural model in Iran on increasing production has failed to be successful in improving food security and environmental conservation and, subsequently, the need to change the model is felt. Since organic farming is in progress only in some parts of Iran, it can be argued that it is high time to consider the issue of organic farming in Iran seriously.
In general, Iran is in its primary steps of transitioning to organic products. Owing to its span, climate variety, and soil fertility, Fars province is considered as the major agricultural productive area in Iran with 74,000 hectares (ha) of organic crop farming, such as vegetables, figs, almonds, grapes, pomegranates, saffron [
28]. Despite what is expected, based on the latest information on food security in the country, it is revealed that Fars province is relatively insecure in terms of the food security situation [
29]. Considering the importance and potential of this province in agriculture, its pivotal role in providing food security and production of organic products in the region, as well as a relatively low level of food security, the aim of this study is to identify the role of organic farming in improving food security from the perspectives of farmers. Therefore, the objectives of the study are to: (1) survey and address the effect of social capability (capacity building, creating jobs) of organic farming in improving food security; (2) survey and address the effect of economic capability (optimization of production, economic benefit, income creation) of organic farming in improving food security; and (3) survey and address the effect of environmental capability (technical, protection, health and safety) of organic farming in improving food security from the viewpoint of Fars farmers.
2. Materials and Methods
The methods of analysis used in this applied study involved quantitative research and non-experimental (descriptive) research design. The population of the study comprised 622 farmers who cultivate strategic products, such as wheat, maize, and rice, which play a key role in food security, and were also members of plant pathology clinics. These clinics have official statistics of their cultivation and their numbers. In this research, organic products are products that have passed through the laboratory in order to determine the residual chemical content before being supplied to the consumer. These farms are also under the supervision of plant pathology clinics. In fact, samples of products from these farms were taken randomly by representatives of the University of Medical Sciences and the Standard Office in Shiraz and sent to the laboratory for determination of the remaining pesticides, and then applied for certification.
The sample was determined using Cochran’s formula n = Nt
2s
2/Nd
2 + t
2s
2. In the relation, N is the statistical population, and t is the acceptable confidence coefficient obtained from the Student’s
t table. In addition, S
2 is the variance of the studied feature in the population, and d is the desired probability accuracy (half the confidence interval), so n = 622 × 3.88 × 0.306/(622 × 0.0025) + (3.84 × 0.306) = 267, and since n/(N) = 0.47 < 05/0, therefore, the adjustment formula was used in the following examples. n = N/(1 + n/N) = 267/(1 + 267/622) = 187, so using this formula, the sample volume obtained was 187. In this study, the sampling used was a proportional stratified sampling method; therefore, according to the number of clinics, and in proportion to the population and sample within each clinic, samples were selected based on the number of farmers of those clinics. In the quantitative research, field study tools included a questionnaire. The content and face validity were established by a panel of experts comprising faculty members, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was obtained for all parts of the questionnaires (0.704–0.982) and this was indicative of the reliability of the tool (
Table 1).
The dependent variable in this study was food security using the 23-items in four parts of availability (seven items), access (five items), utilization (six items), and stability (five items). The independent variables included the social dimension in two categories: capacity building (five items) and creating jobs (five items); the economic dimensions of organic farming in three categories: production optimization (four items), economic advantage (seven items), and income creation (seven items); and environmental aspects of organic farming in three categories: technical (six items), protection (12 items), and health and safety (seven items).
In this study, after collection and classification of data, data analysis was conducted in two parts, descriptive and inferential statistics. Criteria, such as the mean, median, and mode were used in the descriptive statistics of the research, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for the inferential statistics using the classical approach and, finally, the model was designed. SEM is a well-known technique for estimating, analyzing, and testing models.
Figure 1 below illustrates the structure of the SEM. There are two kinds of variables, observed and latent variables (capacity building, creating jobs, production optimization, economic advantage, income creation, technical, protection, health and safety) in the model. In SEM, there are five steps. Step 1: model designing (done by drawing pictures using Amos software (IBM Corporation, Wexford, PA, USA) step 2: data collection for model testing (SPSS data file use); step 3: model estimation (this step is performed by Amos software); step 4: model assessment (fit statistics appear after the parameter estimates); and step 5: the final model presentation. The capability of organic farming in three dimensions of social, economic, and environmental in improving food security are prioritized based on the path coefficient estimate )estimate is one of the Amos’s outputs that estimate the model’s parameter and is equal to β in regression) of the final model is taken from Amos software. Each part is shown in separate tables with details until the final model can be better understood. Information processing and statistical analysis of throughout the study was done using SPSS V
20 (IBM Corporation, New York, NY, USA) and Amos V
23 software (IBM Corporation, Wexford, PA, USA).
3. Results
The youngest person in the population was 23 and the oldest was 71 years old, and the average age of the population was 48 years and the median was 49 years. A total of 182 farmers (97.3%) were male and five (2.7%) were female. Forty-eight (25.7%) of the respondents had diplomas and 45 (24.1%) had no formal education.
The dependent variable in this study was food security using the 23-items in four parts of availability (seven items), access (five items), utilization (six items), and stability (five items) which were assessed at the level of pseudo-distance with Likert’s scale (very low: 1, low: 2, average: 3, high: 4, and very high: 5). All of these items were added and then re-coded together; the lowest and highest points for a responsive, respectively was 23 = (1 × 23) and 115 = (5 × 23). After re-coding, very low positions were allocated to the (23–40), low (41–59), medium (60–78), high (79–97), and very high (98–116). The research results revealed that the rate of food security from the perspective of the majority of respondents (45.5%) was at the medium level, and 36.4% at the low level. Other findings are observable in
Table 2.
One of the food security dimensions is food availability. There are seven items in food availability. Based on the collected information;
Table 3 illustrates farmers’ viewpoints on food availability items based on mean and S.E.
One of the food security dimension is food access. There are five items in food access. Based on the collected information,
Table 4 illustrates farmers’ viewpoints on food access items based on the mean and S.E.
One of the food security dimensions is food utilization. There are six items in food utilization. Based on the collected information,
Table 5 shows farmers’ viewpoints on food utilization items based on the mean and S.E.
One of the food security dimensions is food stability. There are five items in food stability. Based on the collected information,
Table 6 illustrates farmers’ viewpoints on food stability items based on the mean and S.E.
3.1. Three Dimension of Organic Agriculture on Improving Food Security
3.1.1. The Social Dimensions of Organic Farming (Capacity Building and Creating Jobs) to Improve Food Security
In the social dimension of organic farming, there are two categories: capacity building (five items) and creating jobs (five items). Statistics path coefficient estimates (Estimate is one of the Amos outputs that estimates the model’s parameter and is equal to β in regression) were used in order to prioritize the social dimension of capacity building and job creating capability in organic farming. Any item that has a higher path coefficient has a higher priority. In the capacity building capability of organic farming, the statement of valuing indigenous knowledge systems and traditional farming systems (Estimate = 0.91) and in the job creation capability of organic farming, the statement of improving employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas (Estimate = 0.83) have the highest priority among the items in order to improve food security (
Table 7).
3.1.2. The Economic Dimension of Organic Farming (Production Optimization, Economic Benefits, and Income Creation) to Improve Food Security
In the economic dimensions of organic farming, there are three categories: production optimization (four items), economic advantage (seven items), and income creation (seven items). Statistics path coefficient estimates (Estimate) were used to prioritize these categories. Any item that has a higher path coefficient has a higher priority. In the production optimization capability of organic farming, the statement of an improving efficiency in areas with low inputs (Estimate = 0.82) and in the economic benefits capability of organic farming, the statements of satisfying farmers from an economic perspective (Estimate = 0.88), and in the income creation capability of organic farming, the statement of reducing the cost of purchased external inputs (Estimate = 0.97) have the highest priority among the items in order to improve food security (
Table 8).
3.1.3. The Environmental Dimension of Organic Farming (Technical, Protection, Health and Safety) to Improve Food Security
In environmental aspects of organic farming, there are three categories: technical (six items), protection (12 items), and health and safety (seven items). Statistics path coefficient estimates (Estimate) were used to prioritize the environmental dimension of technical, protection, and health and safety capabilities in organic farming. Any item that has a higher path coefficient has a higher priority. In the technical capability of organic farming, the statements of reducing tillage operations (Estimate = 0.94) and using environmentally friendly production methods (Estimate = 0.84); in the protection capability of organic farming, the statements of maintaining soil fertility in the long-term (Estimate = 0.76) and improving soil structure (Estimate = 0.75); and in the health and safety capability of organic farming, the statements of producing food without chemicals (Estimate = 0.85) have the highest priority among the items in order to improve food security (
Table 9).
3.2. Fitness of the Model
As the characteristics of fitness show in
Table 10, the ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom CMIN/DF was 1.102 and smaller than 2. P CMIN was 0.118 and greater than 0.05. Additionally, the estimated root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.023, and smaller than 0.05, confirming the fitness of the model and representing the best fit to the model. Another way to fit this model is to calculate the approximate high goodness of fit index (GFI) and improve adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI). The proximity of the amount to 0.95 is another confirmation to the fit of the model.
The parameters of the route are presented in
Table 11, along with the significance level. It became obvious that technical pathways, health and safety, production optimization, income creation, protection, creating jobs, capacity building, and economic advantages are significant at 99%. Directions standardized regression coefficients estimates are given in the table. As it is shown, a technical capability of 0.747, with the highest effect, followed by health and safety with 0.735, and the optimization of production with 0.628 create the greatest impact on improving food security.
The structural equation model (SEM) for estimating the standard coefficients of organic agriculture in improving food security is illustrated in
Figure 2.
4. Discussion and Conclusions
The direct answer or simple solution on how to solve food insecurity through organic farming is very difficult and it is impossible to make simple statements. The acceptance level in order to improve the quantity and quality of food should be increased through organic agriculture. In this study, farmers’ comments regarding the role of organic farming were studied in social, economic, and environmental dimensions for improving food security. The results indicated that the level of food security from the perspective of the majority of respondents (45.5%) was at a medium level. From the perspective of farmers in the social dimension of organic farming, the standardized regression coefficient of the two capabilities of capacity building and job creation was 0.51 and 0.47, respectively. According to the results of SEM, in the capacity building, the statement of valuing indigenous knowledge systems (0.88) and also in creating job capability, the statements of improving employment opportunities, especially in rural areas (0.83), have been the highest priority in improving food security. We conclude that, in the social dimension, paying attention to traditional knowledge in line with organic farming, which is based on the experience often tested over years of usage and adapted to the local culture and environment, is a very important item in improving food security. In addition, from the opinion of Fars farmers, since cultivating methods in organic farming are different from what is common in conventional agriculture, it makes use of more and new labor and involves farmers in agricultural activities. Supply of products to the market also leads to the creation of new employment opportunities, which will empower farmers and increase food security. The results are in agreement with the findings of [
10,
12,
13,
14,
15].
With regard to economic dimension of the three capabilities of production optimization (0.628), economic benefits (0.403), and income creation (0.574) based on the results of SEM, improvement efficiency in areas with low inputs (0.82) is the most important result of production optimization capability. Satisfaction of farmers (0.88) is the most important result of economic benefits capability and reducing the costs of purchased external inputs (0.97) is the most important result of income creation capability of organic farming. Therefore, based on the Fars farmers viewpoint in the economic dimension, organic farming reduces the cost of purchasing external inputs, as well as improving the production of a higher-value economic product with a more marketable export value, thus satisfying farmers economically. It improves their income and is heading towards improved food security in the long-term. The results are in agreement with the findings of [
12,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
21,
22,
23,
24,
30].
The three technical, protection, and health and safety capabilities of the environmental dimension of organic farming standardized regression coefficient were 0.747, 0.543, and 0.735, respectively. Based on the results of SEM in terms of technical ability in organic farming, the statements of reduced tillage operation (0.94) and the use of environmentally-friendly production methods (0.84), in terms of protection capability, the statements of maintaining soil fertility in the long-term (0.76) and improving soil structure (0.75), and in terms of health and safety capability, food production items without any chemicals (0.85) have the highest priority in improving food security. Thus, in the environmental dimension, Fars farmers believed that organic farming improves soil the fertility process due to the use of green manure and reduced tillage operation and avoiding fertilizers and chemical pesticides, by the advantage of the nutritional value of organic products, improves food security in the long-term. The results are consistent with the findings of [
10,
13,
20,
22,
24,
26,
27,
28,
31]. The direction of the standardized regression coefficient estimates showed that, from the perspective of farmers, a technical capability of 0.747, with the highest effect, followed by health and safety of 0.735, and the optimization of production of 0.628 in organic farming, create the greatest impact on improving food security. According to the findings of this study, we conclude that organic farming is one of the suitable methods to improve food security. From the farmers’ perspective, the most effective capabilities in improving food security were technical, health and safety, and the optimization of production, respectively. These results show that farmers believed that the use of appropriate techniques of organic farming leads to the optimization of production and improves the health and safety of persons which, in the long-term, promotes food security.
It should be considered that we cannot use the global version for all cultivation in order to improve food security, but organic agriculture emphasis should be placed on the use of management operations because each ecosystem requires a particular management approach based on the environmental, social, and economic conditions.