Determining global food security perceptions of agriculture faculty students: A case of Isparta University of Applied Sciences

The study aimed at determining the global food security perceptions of students in the faculty of agriculture and their suggestions for reducing food insecurity, improving food safety, and building sustainable food systems. The students' degree of agreement establishing their knowledge level was determined by the Likert scale. The Cronbach's alpha α was 0.817, and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test was 0.822 indicating the sample size was sufficient for factor analysis. The Bartlett Test of Sphericity was 691.226 with a significance level of p<0.001, indicating a substantial and adequate number of correlations between the variables. The 7 factors extracted using the Eigenvalue explained 73.68% of the total variance; food security, food systems, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, food loss and waste, international organizations, and food safety. The study reported that more than 70% of the students were aware of the 7 factors. More than 80% of the students indicated that high production costs, poverty, low income, food loss and waste, and low earnings for farmers were significant threats. The students recommended agricultural diversification, increasing mechanization, incentives to lower food prices, the use of certified seeds, and better policies. The study recommended the creation of more awareness among students regarding career selection, encouraging students to follow global events relating to the agricultural sector, more emphasis on the importance of creating sustainable food systems among students, creating more awareness of threats posed by climate change, and encouraging students to be ambassadors against food loss and waste.