An Investigation of Participation of Pastoralists of the Dishmook District on Rural Development Projects

According to the specific conditions of developing countries and increasing urbanization rate and related problems; rural development has a double importance. Rural development is the strategy which is led to increase self-confidence, creativity and empowerment of rural settlers, especially poor people. This paper has studied the participation of Yaylaq pastoralists in developmental projects and related challenges in Dishmook district, Dehdasht County, Kohkilooieh and Boierahmad Province in Iran. The qualitative research and grounded theory method were used and the technique of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) was employed for data collection. The data were collected through observation and semi-structured Review. Reliability of study was provided by noting the important points of review and creating the suitable interaction between the researcher and the participants and the validity of research was provided by "participant feedback" strategy. Also to increase the reliability and validity, "data triangulation" strategy was used. Random Purposive Sampling was used and Totally 9 villages from 3 villages were investigated. According to the findings, contrary to the previous researcher's attitudes, rural people had a very high participation tendency although they were very poor. To buy and to donate land for school construction free of charge, participation in building roads were among the most important evidences of rural participation. Nevertheless, despite the rural people's high tendency towards participation, suitable infrastructures for the continuation of voluntary cooperation in agricultural and other anti-poverty projects had not been appropriately planned and prepared. The major cause of this dilemma was the lack of local empowering organizations including Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the centre of agricultural extension and services. For improvement of the rural livelihood and access to rural and agricultural development, it is suggested that local institutions, especially the centre of agricultural extension and services, to be established and supported.