Rural Development Strategies
Year:2019 | Volume:6 | Issue:1|Papers Count:8

The concept of sustainable livelihoods is one of the new analytical approaches to rural development that has been considered in recent years for rural development and poverty alleviation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the stability of rural livelihood in the city of Saqez. In order to sample the villages to be studied, villages were first divided into five groups of population and then the number of villages in each class was determined based on the number of villages in each population class. In total, thirty villages were selected as samples. Using the Cochran formula, three hundred and eight families were selected as the sample size and they were asked to complete the questionnaire. The results of descriptive findings and one-sample T-test show that the sustainability of livelihood in all aspects of sustainable livelihoods is low in the study area. Also, the results of correlation and regression analysis show that there is a direct and meaningful relationship between the various parts of the city in terms of and the central section of the city in relation to livelihood stability. The central part of the city is in better condition than the rest of the city in terms of sustainable livelihood and this has an impact on the sustainable livelihood of the residents.

Considering the importance of preserving the environment of tourist attracting villages, the present study is aimed at investigating the role of tourism development in promoting environmental knowledge in the villages of the Qhale Chaei touristic road of Ajab shir. The research is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive in nature, and causal and analytical. The statistical population of the study consist resident of nine villages along this road. 370 people were selected based on Cochran formula using a simple random sampling method. The factual validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts. Using the Cronbach Alpha Special Formula, the reliability of the research questionnaire was found to be0. 887. Pearson correlation test, multivariate regression test and path analysis using the PLS software were used for data analysis. Promethee, Vicore, ANP and Kaplend models were used for prioritization of villages. The results of the research on environmental awareness show that all variables of protection of ecological balance of the village, vegetation and animal protection, drought control, noise pollution, water and soil conservation, use of organic farming, reduction of fuel use have a significant relationship with reduction of fossil fuels, proper waste disposal, no use of non-renewable waste, management of biological crisis and restoration of damaged environment. In addition, the Tapic Dare village has the highest priority and the Qozelga village has the least priority in terms of environmental knowledge of villagers based on the results of multi-attribute models. Finally, according to the research findings, it is suggested that rural tourism functions should be used in environmental protection.

The villages annexed to metropolises face numerous environmental contaminations. One of the most common contaminations that is of great importance is pollution of soil, garbage, etc. Accordingly, the present paper analyzes the environmental contaminations of the villages annexed to Mashhad. The research method is descriptive-analytic and ArcGIS and GeoDa software packages have been used for analyzing the data. Moran’ s I coefficient and the bivariate general G-statistic were used for investigating the spatial distribution of leishmaniasis disease for measuring the autocorrelation of leishmaniasis due to environmental contamination, The statistical population consists of fourteen villages annexed to Mashhad. The associated statistics were obtained from the official local health network. Among the studied villages, the Cis-Abad village had the highest rate of illnesses with 2190 cases. The results show that the spatial distribution of leishmaniasis in Mashhad is clustered and the G-Statistic has been obtained to be 0. 5. Among the villages studied, the rate of the Sisabad village with 2190 cases of illness has the most instances of leishmaniasis. The statistical results show that the spatial distribution of the leishmaniasis disease in Mashhad is G of 0. 5 that is obtained in a clustering format. Considering the spatial autocorrelation of leishmaniasis and environmental contamination, the obtained spatial distribution is of the cluster type and the bivariate Moran's I is 0. 68Mthat indicates that the villages which have higher levels of environmental pollution are more likely to develop leishmaniasis disease. The results of research show that since the villages that are annexed to Mashhad are more widely located around the Kashaf Rood river and the direction of the slope of Mashhad is towards this river, the most environmental pollution exists in the annexed villages that has resulted in leishmaniasis disease for the inhabitants of these areas.

Selecting a village manager as a new form of rural management can be considered as a turning point in the history of rural management. From the beginning, village municipalities have been using people’ s cooperation and participation, government grants to meet public needs, improvement and cleaning the living environment, maintaining and operating infrastructures, etc. in order to perform their duties. The purpose of the present research study is to investigate the performance of Rural Municipalities in a proper governance framework from the point of view of the residents of the villages in the Central District of the Ardabil County. The present research is practical in terms of its application and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature. The statistical population of this study is 34 villages with a population of 28199 people and 8151 households. The sample size was estimated to be 387 individuals based on the Cochran formula. The samples in the villages were distributed based on their populations and the selection of samples in rural areas was systematically random. Eight indicators (participation, being law abiding, accountability, responsibility, justness, collective agreement, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness) were used in 60 items in order to evaluate performance of village municipality managers. The questionnaire was designed with closed questions in the format of the five-point Likert scale. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of expert professors. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0. 784 based on Cronbach's alpha. The results of one-sample t-test with a mean score of 2. 07 show that the level of proper governance of the villages in the Central District of the Ardabil County was lower than average. The results show that performance of the managers of village municipality is poorer than average according to the viewpoints of residents of the villages in the Central District of the Ardabil County and it is not in desirable conditions.

Nowadays, the position of production of medicinal plants in the health of the community and the value of medicinal and aromatic plants have not been addressed by anyone. Forestry, pasture and medicinal and industrial plants not only have a particular role in domestic economy, but also have a significant impact on non-oil exports. It is important to note that Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province has a diverse and appropriate climate that can be one of the most capable areas for cultivation and production of medicinal plants. Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating and identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of cultivation and production of medicinal plants in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province. The present study was carried out using the qualitative method. The statistical population in this study consisted of people who were technically instructed to produce and process medicinal plants in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmed province. Finally 35 people were selected using snowball sampling. The SWOT model was applied to analyze the findings. Based on the findings, 17 strengths, 32 weaknesses, 12 opportunities and 12 threats were identified. It seems that the WT strategies such as "motivating investors inside the province by informing them about the favorable conditions of the province in the field of producing these types of products" and the WO strategies such as "using existing facilities in metropolises adjacent the province to process and export medicinal plants" have more important roles in the development of the production of medicinal plants in the province due to the large number of identified weaknesses.

The factors that affect watershed plans must be considered in order to increase participation is these plans. The present study is aimed at investigating the role of villagers' attitudes toward watershed plans on their participation (Case study: Saeed abad Kiasar Watershed). This study is a practical research that is done in the form of correlation-descriptive method. The statistical population comprised of all heads of families (N= 343) from the Saeed abad watershed basin. The sample size was calculated using the Cochran formula and 157 individuals were selected as prospective participants. Stratified random sampling was employed in this study. A questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by experts and scholars was used to collect data. Cronbach's alpha was reported to be between 0. 75-0. 89 for the questionnaire. The average number of times of attending training courses was one. The average participation and attitude of villagers in watershed plans were at a high level. The regression analysis showed that participation by attitude has 29 percent variance. According to the achieved results of this study, it is recommended that villagers’ participation in design, implementation and evaluation of watershed plans be used by carefully planning and creating a favorable attitude in villagers.

Optimizing transportation of agricultural products plays an important role in reducing 4production costs and market margins for these products. The Khorasan Razavi province is one of the major provinces of the country in the production of vegetables. Due to the wide range of vegetables produced in the province, an efficient transportation network is required in order to increase productivity of machinery and reduce the associated costs. The aim of the present study is to design an optimal network for transporting products such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and egg plants from production areas in the province to maintenance centers and ultimate consumption areas in 2016. To this end, the mathematical programming models of transportation were used. A combined transportation network that has 35 source notes and 49 destination nodes and a number of mid-nodes including warehouse and refrigerator was designed. The optimized network that was presented for product transfer eliminates some duplicate routes and shipping, and adds some new paths that have the least increase in distance travelled. This will result in a reduction of 1. 45% and 1. 25% in transportation costs, taking into account the 5% increase in production and 30% increase in machinery capacity.

Women have an undeniable role in the various activities of rural communities. In fact, women have been active in all activities of rural areas, but their productive role has reduced in recent decades. In some rural areas of Iran including the statistical population of this study i. e. the villages of Zaborkhan district of Neishabour city these is a reduction of women's productive activities, especially in handicrafts. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the reasons behind reduced level of activity and participation of women in the production of handicrafts in the villages of the suburban section of Neishabour. Accordingly, 111 women employed in handicrafts were selected as samples and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. At the inferential level, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and single-sample T-test were used to test the assumptions. Moreover, Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the test. A single-sample parametric T test showed that rural handicrafts play a role in diversifying economic activities, the level of productive activity and participation of women. Moreover, it was shown that reducing the role of these industries in the studied area has reduced the income of rural households that has resulted in their migration. To counteract the decline in the role of handicrafts in the region, rural women's familiarity with modern production methods, application of women's knowledge of rural artists, and increasing the budget for training and insurance of female rural artisans will boost greater participation of rural women in production activities.