an analysis of seasonal changes of household food security status among smallholder farmers in mazandaran province

this study has investigated smallholder farmers’ household food security level in mazandaran province during the two times i.e pre-harvest period and post-harvest period. using krejcie and morgan’s detrmining sample table, 384 farmers selected as a sample. a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select preciously subjects. household food insecurity access scale (hfias) was the main tool for collecting data on food security status. face and content validity of scale was justified during the several steps with using an expert’s panel. the value of cronbach’s α (0.93) indicated high internal consistency of the scale. the results showed that during the pre-harvest period about 35% of households classified into secure category, but during the post-harvest period about 50% of households classified into secure category. also, results indicated that household food security level has been more improved during the post-harvest period rather than pre-harvest period. in other word, seasonal changes has affected on household food security level.