VILLAGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2006 | Volume:9 | Issue:1|Papers Count:5

A technical stratification of country's regions is a necessity for a conventional support service delivery. Using Taxonomy method, in the first place, variables on some primary data on animal husbandry were gathered to determine development indices as the most important step in regional development studies; these variables included: number of livestock units; amount of pastures,forests, and cultivated lands; amount of milk and/or meat production; and the number of specialists engaged in the project. Following an identification of the screened variables, the concerned indices were developed. Finally, a comparative ranking of the provinces was assumed upon their relative development levels. As extracted from the results, they were stratified into the four groups: a) Very highly developed provinces, ie East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Khuzestan, Ardebil, and Kurdistan; b) Highly developed provinces, ie Mazandaran, Zanjan, Chahar- Mahal va Bakhtiyari, Ham, Markazi, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Khorasan,Boushehr, Kerman, and GiUan;c) Low developed provinces, ie Kohgilouye va Boyer- Ahmad, Fars, and Lorestan; and d) Less developed provinces, ie Hamadan, Tehran, and Sistan va Balouchestan.

This paper makes use of results of General Census of Agriculture carried out at the 1960-1993 period as well as crop production reports as its database; and of discriminant analysis techniques, and within groups comparison of operators in order to calculate and analyze the relations between size of agricultural operating units and agricultural intensification index.The results indicate that the level of intensification, yields per hectare, and the return rates in all operating units have increased during the period, and the production of four selected crops including cereals, pulses, industrial plants, and potatoes has reached from 5712000 tons in 1960 to 19858000 tons in 1993. The indices of the number of operating units, crops cultivated area, proportion of irrigated lands; operating units, proportion of lands under cultivation of labor-intensive crops to total cultivated lands, yields per hectare in family operating units smaller than 10 hectares, are significantly higher than those of large-scale units. These units, with and ownership of 31.5 percent of the lands under cultivation of twenty-one crops studied, accounted for some 50 percent production of these crops and 70 percent production of the selected six labor-intensive crops at 1992-93crop year. In addition, yields per hectare of nineteen crops in units smaller than 10 hectares were over 5.5 tons and in units of larger than 10 hectares were less than 3 tons. Besides, there were less than 20 percent of the fallow lands in the units smaller than 10 hectares and 42 percent in the units larger than 50 hectares. A reverse correlation between the size of operating units and the factor of agricultural intensification, shown also significant while environmental, natural, spatial, and technical variables are controlled, is mainly influenced by a coordinated management, an experience of indigenous knowledge with a cultivation history of over thousands of years, lower over-head costs, adaptability to environmental changes, higher incentives, adoption of inventions, and duties conducted by members of the family units compared to the large-scale units.

This study reviews causes of rural-urban migration drawing upon existing migration theories including particularly those of E. Lee, and Lewis-Fei- Ranis, as well as dependence theory. Theses on the same discussion, using meta-analysis method, presented in Tehran university, are studied to provide experimental support to the theories.In a comprehensive perspective, the causes of rural-urban migration may be identified in four aspects: economic, socio-cultural, demographic, and natural-agricultural. The economic aspect takes the first place in significance, while the socio-cultural, natural-agricultural, and demographic aspects gain other degrees of impact respectively. Given a categorization of push/pull factors as well as subordinate/personal factors for each aspect, however, the rural pushing factor reveals to be the most effective factor in the rural-urban migration, followed by the other factors -ie urban pull factors, personal, and subordinate ones, respectively. Most of the rural push factors are due to the economic aspect, while the natural-agricultural and socio-cultural aspects are placed in the lower ranks.

An over-emphasis on transfer of technology into the rural areas has been shown as affecting environment and natural resources. Besides, extension performances based on technology diffusion are not in harmony with present needs. Insistence on the technology transfer has also resulted in a vague relation between human and the environment. Studies have lead to the identification of "indigenous knowledge", a total neglect of which has so far caused substantial distortions in sustainable development plans. It appears to be complementary to the modem sciences in terms of strengths and weaknesses; by a combination of them, nevertheless, there might be achievements otherwise never would be reached. This paper illustrates the results of selected studies on indigenous knowledge, aiming at introducing a need for getting it in focus while planning the extension and development process. Data were gathered in both desk and field methods. Field studies are characterized by using qualitative research methods and approaches such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). Among other results, this research tends to introduce a primary and effective contribution of extension in accelerating the rural sustainable development process as well as to represent Iranian indigenous knowledge as a necessity in the extension and sustainable development process.

As an educational institution, "Extension Organization" was established to facilitate a development process, and it is thus virtually expected to follow views and policies reflected in most common development theories which are deemed to be changed occasionally; and now it is time for emerging participation rather than modernization paradigm. Hence, it seems inevitable to redefine nature and position of extension organizations, responding to the changes. In brief, this paper attempts to: 1) describe the meaning of development and participation; 2) compare the nature of extension organizations in modernization and participation paradigms; and 3) illustrate the position of extension organizations in the participation paradigm with regard to its communicative nature.