VILLAGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2006 | Volume:9 | Issue:3|Papers Count:9

In most countries, providing common access to electronic information and services for rural regions in particular, is dominantly achieved through establishing tele-centers or information technology (IT) centers. As stipulated within a national project called "Equipping 10000 Rural ICT Centers" in Iran, there must be established one IT center in each one of 10000 villages of the country. However, given world experience, various social, economic, physical, and political conditions at different national, regional, and local levels are required to be considered, and necessary grounds to establish such centers are to be primarily made as well, should one expect them to contribute successfully to rural development. This article has sought such a ground in villages of Khorasan-e Razavi province, and drawn on views of 20 experts in order to determine weight of each influencing factor in establishing these centers. According to Cochran formula, 30 villages of the province were specified as samples.As indicated by study results, there are significant gaps between existing social, economic, and physical conditions of the concerned villages and the experts' standards to stablish IT centers; and simply natural conditions are found to be at a desirable level, which are considered as the lowest weight criterion by the experts.

Over the years different scientific disciplines have studied rural society. But no questions have been raised around the interactions among them and their domains of activity and inquiry. One issue raised very recently is the discussion about multidisciplinary studies which describes the relationship among disciplines such as geography, history, sociology, agriculture and natural resources. This paper reviews comparatively the activity domains, interaction types and interdependencies of different disciplines in rural studies. The main argument of this paper is that emerging interdisciplinary studies is a criticism of excessive specialization. The aim of these studies is not to discredit methodological independence and weaken the nature of independent disciplines, rather they attempt to find a composite index among interrelated and multiple disciplines. Rural development is the agreed upon interdisciplinary and composite index in this paper. It can be studied and analysed not in the area of methodology and domain but in inclusiveness of these disciplines' objectives. Rural development gathers different sciences together in a specific system which due to a common objective affects their approaches and methodologies.

Irrigation and Drainage System of Doroudzan is the most modern system in Iran and the largest one in Fars province. This site was selected and studied to identify the obstacles that water users face when participating in the management of irrigation and drainage system.The required data were collected through interviews and 118 questionnaires were filled, using a two-stage random sampling method. We used multiple choice Likert scale and relative frequency percentage. Study results indicate that the water user participation in various stages of complementary program for the Doroudzan irrigation and drainage system tends to be at a low level in general, while another finding of the study shows that the water users recognize the advantages of participation. The obstacles to participation in the Doroudzan system area based on their priorities include: government organizations, local organizations, economic problems of the water users, lack of adequate understanding and cooperation among water users, inadequate attention to training and extension, and insufficiency of water distributed. In order to remove or reduce these obstacles, the paper recommendations include: a revision of the present roles of the public organizations related to the system, improving and enhancing the formations and structure of local organizations, an urgent attention paid to the economic problems of water users, more attention to training and extension, and distribution the of adequate water.

Rural women of Iran have long achieved a prominent position in sustainable development process, and rural women of Chaharmahal - va – Bakhtiyari province are not an exception. This article uses scientific methods to explain such a position. It defines and classifies variables that are indicators of socio-economic status of rural women as well as variables related to rural development. It adopts Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Pressure-State Respond Model to explain rural women roles in sustainable rural development.Results indicate that spatial structure of each particular homogenous area, i.e., flat land-peasant and nomadic-mountainous ones will affect socioeconomic status of rural women in existing environmental conditions (in terms of the degree of development sustainability). On the other hand, it has a significant relationship with general skill endowment of women and their access to and control of production resources.To promote socio-economic position of rural women the following steps should be taken: enhancing educational levels, organizing training and extension courses, promoting women's access to and control of production resources by supplying low price banking facilities, establishing and expanding production cooperatives and non-governmental organizations, etc. for women, and concentrating on potentials in each homogenous area.

This explanatory study aims to identify and analyze mechanisms and implications of enhancing agricultural research system of Iran based on a survey. According to Cochran formula, the size of sample was 152 selected from a total of 1160 faculty members of institutes and centers affiliated with Agricultural Research and Education Organization. Initially, a questionnaire was designed consisting of two parts: system-wide and institution-wide mechanisms and implications. After the completion of questionnaires we used factor analysis from SPSS. Six factors were extracted from factor analysis of system wide mechanisms and implications that contribute to the strengthening of National Research System (NRS). They include: 1) Organizing agricultural research in NRS, 2) policy making, 3) institutional development, 4) coordination, 5) planning and managing agricultural research, and 6) facilitating professional development. Moreover, factor analysis of the institution wide mechanisms indicates five important factors: 1) human resource management, 2) infrastructure management, 3) funding, 4) networking, and 5) organizational capacity building.

The low performance of surface irrigation and problems like overconsumption of underground water led implementing organizations to invest extensively for the development of water saving technologies in recent years. Despite government significant supports, farmers were reluctant to adopt it. This article tries to explain the behavior of the farmers in Billow village of Marivan county It used case study and multi perspective analysis. A case study deeply explores interactions between different factors that create change in a specific phenomenon and provides researchers with a general and comprehensive conception of it. Farmers, extension experts, and executive mangers of cooperatives analyse the information.Findings indicate that organizational pressures, provision of subsidized credit, and no obligation to pay for construction costs have contributed to diffusion and adoption of the concerned innovation. The most important factors that influence farmers decision to discontinue the application of this technology are: a) farmers characteristics such as agedness, low literacy, low skill, farm fragmentation; b) incompatibility of technology due to high level of hydrostatics in the region, excessive rainfall, windy regional condition, high quality of clayey lands, availability of water in the region, and low quality land pieces; and c) weak executive system.

Potato cultivation is dominant in Fereidounshahr County and plays a significant role in its economy. Therefore it is very important to identify factors threatening sustainable production of this crop. The present survey was conducted in 2004-05 crop year. From a statistical population of 1200 potato cultivators a sample of 160 was selected by using a multi stage cluster sampling known as probability proportionate to size. Results produced in the descriptive part indicate that most of the farmers are old and illiterate, 67 percent of cultivation systems fall into a relatively sustainable group; and the sustainability of cultivation appears to have positive significant relationships with the farmers' ages, working experiences in agriculture, potato cultivation records, membership in cooperatives, type of potato farming, size of farmland, the size of area under potato cultivation, ecological features, social status, knowledge of sustainable agriculture, and attitude. A multivariate stepwise regression analysis was performed with cultivation sustainability as dependent variable and total production, attitudes toward the sustainable agriculture, extent of financial facilities, knowledge of sustainable agriculture, social participation, and communicative characteristics as the predictor variables, which explain about 81 percent of the dependent variable.

During the recent decades, a set of economic, social, and cultural developments occurred in Iran has changed family structure and values in value system of Iranian urban and rural societies in different aspects. This research aims at identifying the most important family values in viewpoint of the rural youth as well as primary determinants of such values. Statistical population includes rural residents of Isfahan province aged between 18 and 30 years; and a survey method is used in the research. To collect field data, 544 young people were interviewed, who had been screened using a multi-stage sampling method. The family values might be assumed in various aspects the most significant of which, for the rural youth, include: forming a family, suitable ages of marriage, main dimensions of a family, an ideal number of children, criteria of spouse selection, decision-making in a family, independence of a woman in family, and a value generation gap. Factors directly effective on the family values are: life satisfaction, gender, educational level, use of mass media, and climatic conditions; while a number of factors in directly influence on the family values, which include: age, connection with urban centers, village accessibility, marital status, and economic situation.