VILLAGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2011 | Volume:13 | Issue:4|Papers Count:9

This study is an attempt to show that despite common perception, rural development is an interwoven concept, affected by many factors. Some of these factors such as "population" have been ignored completely or got less attention. Population had not an important role in early socioeconomic development plans of Iran and reference to rural population and its characteristics was only a lip service, such that due to the lack of an inclusive definition of the concept, there was a difference of 16000 in the number of villages in different censuses. Considering that rural development is a place-oriented program and its ultimate objective is to promote the living standards of rural population, it is inevitable to not only look at rural habitats but also consider the characteristics of rural inhabitants, their needs and requirements. In some provinces more than 80 percent of villages are densely populated which leads to not being included in development programs and consequent depopulation of rural areas and rural outmigration. This paper is attempting to show the role of demographic characteristics and necessity of serious attention to them as a key factor in rural development with a consequent change in attitudes and more efficient actions.

This paper is a descriptive-analytical survey. The statistical population was 123 members of cooperatives' board of directors. The main tool of research is a questionnaire with a Cronbach's alpha equal to 0.86.The stepwise regression results indicated that the organization of service suppliers, employment skill training and infrastructure had positive impacts on the level of employment generation. But the existing barriers and problems in cooperatives had an inverse impact on dependent variable, i.e. employment generation. In sum, the mentioned factors could explain 23 percent of variance in dependent variable.

There is a close relationship between the degree of desirability, acceptance, and appropriateness of rural development planning and the quality of the planning action. The higher the level of mutual understanding and collaboration of main stakeholders in planning process, the more consistent, acceptable and effective decisions. This fact depends on planning approach. There was more emphasis on the role of experts in planning process than other actors until 1980. Gradually, the main weaknesses of this approach appeared and it was replaced by communication planning approach. In this paper the conceptualization and operationalization of this approach, and its application in rural development concurrent with the time of approval and implementation of fifth development plan law was discussed. This study used descriptive-analytical method and related documents were analyzed.

The main objective of this study is to specify and analyze the determinants of the level of economic empowerment of women heads of households in rural areas of Kordestan province. The study is a descriptive-survey which was carried out in 2008. The sample size was equal to 180 women heads of households which was selected by systematic random sampling method and the data were collected by a questionnaire. In addition to reliability through Cronbach’s alpha and test – retest, the reliability of research tool was examined. The results from data analysis indicated that 24% of women heads of rural households under study were economically empowered and 40.7% were half way through it. The degree of empowerment among the widowed women was highest and among divorced ones was lowest. Analyzing the level of empowerment for the group under study indicated that social insurance, level of development, employment diversification, value of assets and time length of activity in a linear form could explain 71% of variance in economic empowerment of women heads of rural households.

Iranian government has been fully aware of the need to address rural areas and their development since the last few decades.  The twentieth century finished and still rural development is facing several problems and challenges. This issue in association with environmental problems directs the attention to a type of development called sustainable rural development. This study used meta analysis to examine the challenges and problems of rural communities in Iran to achieve sustainable development. The results indicated that problems such as weak government management and  planning, the lack of appropriate structure for rural development management, inadequate acknowledgment of indigenous knowledge,  insufficient attention to people participation and social capital, absence of agricultural mechanization, lack of improved productivity of basic production resources, shortage of agricultural extension services, poor quality of rural tourism, and unexpanded modern economic sectors are the main barriers to institutionalize sustainable rural development.

This qualitative research was carried out to identify barriers to development of agro-enterprises. The required information was collected, based on the framework of research protocol and twelve leading questions, by a semi- structured interview and a sample of 43 entrepreneurs and managers of small agro-enterprises. The content of interviews were analyzed by content analysis technique and the results of this process was the extraction of 107 items representing the barriers to development of agro-enterprises. A complete list of items was categorized, in relation to their conceptual affinity, to five thematic classes as follows: natural factors, production factors, complexity of nature and process of agro-businesses, development of agricultural markets, and environment and context of agro-enterprises. The results indicated that the following barriers have the highest frequency: incidence of natural calamities, low quality of existing inputs in the markets, time lag between making the initial investment and profit realization, fluctuations in agricultural markets in relation to imports, exports, pricing policies, and market regulation, and difficult requirements to access bank credits.

The main purpose of this qualitative study is to identify and document indigenous knowledge of the women of Kalhor tribe about livestock optimal selection considering their undeniable role in livestock breeding. The geographical area of this study was Gilan-e Gharb county in Kermanshah province. The study used techniques such as PRA, in depth interview and focused group discussions to collect data. Considering the nature of study, sampling method was purposive and the collected data were examined and analyzed by content analysis technique. The results indicated that nomads adopt appropriate mechanisms such as livestock identification, factors that limit or stimulate sexual maturity, and optimal selection methods to identify those animals which should be eliminated. Formal acknowledgment of this valuable information is unavoidable considering it has been tested and retested through time.

The objective of this study is to analyze statistically the relationship between governance indicators and agriculture performance, and the quality of institutional interactions between farmers and government in 8 selected countries, including Iran, during the period1996-2006 with especial emphasis on analyzing the trend of some economic policies of agricultural sector in Iran. In general, the results indicated that those countries with higher level of governance have utilized traditional and modern inputs more optimally. In fact, statistical results showed a considerable gap between labor productivity and performance per hectare in countries with different levels of governance. Concentrating on the trend analysis of agricultural sector showed that weakness of governance institutions particularly the participation of people institutions, the quality of regulations, and regulation of legal relations were among the effective factors that impede the achievement of development and significant efficiency in agricultural sector.