Determining Causal Model Role of ICTs in Improving Food Security of Iran's Rural Households

Access to desirable, sufficient, safe and nutritious food is one of the basic components of the development and health of a society. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) represent an important strategy that can be used in attaining food security. The main purpose of this research, performed in 2006-2007, was to identify the effectiveness of ICTs in improving food security of Iran's rural households. A descriptive methodology was applied in this research, through questionnaires. The statistical population for the study included 253 agricultural extension experts; from this population, 170 persons were selected. The results showed that, according to the experts' point of view, the situation of food security in Iran's rural households was unfavorable, but that ICTs could play an important role in improving this situation. The results of stepwise regressions showed that providing information about food, increasing food production, helping to market agricultural products, considering clientele needs, improving interactions and communications, ensuring appropriate ICTs, providing access to old technology and accessing the content of this type of technology, were determined to account for 78% of the variance of the food security of Iran's rural households. Moreover, the path analysis technique demonstrated that the improvement of interactions and communications had the greatest influence on determining the causal model of improving food security of Iran's rural households (â =0.992).