Identifying Driving Factors of Urban Agriculture Development in Tabriz City

Urban agriculture is a widely used sustainability strategy to improve the stability of a city.  One way to deal with urban problems is urban agriculture development. Urban agriculture can be a vital livelihood strategy for the urban poor in many developing countries resulting in benefits including enhanced food security and economic empowerment. In this regard, suitable conditions must be provided to use urban agricultural capacities. The aim of this study is to identify the driving factors of urban agriculture development. For this reason, driving factors to the development of urban agriculture are identified in the literature review, or by reviewing related researches, field observations and semi-structured interviews with 15 experts (urban planners, agriculture specialists and university faculty Members) in Tabriz city. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed with interpretive structural modeling technique and a MICMAC analysis. Findings show that research-development factor along with other factors such as; extension-education and financial-technical support is the main driving factor of UA development and must be considered and reviewed more than other factors.