Food Insecurity and Drought: A Study on Resilience and Sustainability

Strategic Insights -

Research from Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan in Mollasani, Iran, has shed light on the devastating impact of drought on food security, particularly in developing countries. The study notes that food insecurity has escalated globally in recent years, driven by increasing droughts and their far-reaching consequences on economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The researchers aimed to assess the role of resilience capacity in improving food security among rural households in Iran, leveraging a sustainable livelihood model to better understand the complex relationships between drought, food security, and human well-being.

Key Takeaways:

  • The study found that 62.86% of rural households in Dezful County, Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, were food insecure, highlighting the urgent need for targeted capacity-building interventions and enhanced resilience strategies.
  • The research identified financial, psychological, human, social, physical, and natural capitals as the key determinants of food security, ranked in order of their influence.
  • Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed the crucial role of resilience capacity in improving food security, suggesting that policymakers should prioritize capacity-building interventions to alleviate poverty and food insecurity.
  • The study employed a multistage cluster sampling method and a structured questionnaire to collect data, with the sample size determined using the Krejcie and Morgan table.
  • The research contributes to the existing literature by bridging gaps in the understanding of the interconnected dimensions of food security, environmental factors, government policies, and psychological considerations.

Statistics:

  • 62.86% of rural households in Dezful County were food insecure.
  • The sample size for the study was determined to be 350 based on the Krejcie and Morgan table.
  • The structured questionnaire used in the study had its validity confirmed by expert review and reliability verified through Cronbach's alpha.

Sources:

  • Impacts of resilience on food security in rural households of Iran under drought conditions using an extended sustainable livelihood framework. Results in Engineering, 2025,26():105145. (Results in Engineering - https://www.journals.elsevier.com/results-in-engineering).
  • Mahsa Rajab-Kalantarzadeh, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran.
  • Moslem Savari, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran.
  • NewsRx. Researchers at Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan Have Published New Study Findings on Sustainability Research (Impacts of resilience on food security in rural households of Iran under drought conditions using ...). Health & Medicine Week. June 13, 2025; p 5588.