فصلنامه روستا و توسعه
سال بیست و یکم شماره 1 (پیاپی 81، بهار 1397)

Climate change and long acute droughts, water crises, rural migration and rural population decline, environmental pressures due to the inefficient use of external inputs, low efficiency of conventional agriculture and a corresponding withdrawal of government support are rendering Iran’s agricultural sector increasingly unsustainable. Hence, in order to protect the natural resources and also create positive change in the situation of farmers and rural people in general, it’s important to consider sustainable agricultural development. For this purpose, investigating the agriculture experts’ viewpoints is crucial, because their perceptions are important for the success or failure of any policy and they act as gatekeepers and are able to impact others’ decisions to adopt/not adopt a policy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the views of agriculture experts regarding sustainable development of rural and agricultural sector of Shushtar County and their priorities. For this purpose, the method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to set priorities. The results revealed that the agriculture experts believed the economy and production-orientation were the most important diminution for sustainable rural development.

This study investigated rural resident's attitudes towards the influence of rural guidance [Hadi] project on tourism infrastructural development in Ardabil County. Survey research method was used. The statistical population of the study consisted of residents of villages which experienced the guidance project more than five years. A sample of 200 residents was selected randomly and the data was gathered using a questionnaire. Results showed that the project had great influence in the field of disposal and waste reduction; also, its effect was at a moderate to low level regarding the collection of animal waste from the village. However, in providing cultural and recreational spaces, the successes were not acceptable. Most of the rural residents were willing to attract tourists; but in most of the villages, tourism potentials were not suitably used. The rural people who had planned to stay in their villages were more willing to rural tourist attraction than those who were planning to immigrate. Women also were less likely willing to attract tourists in their village than men. Based on the factor analysis, six factors developing rural tourism platforms were extracted that accounted for 75.54 percent of variances.

The main purpose of this study was to gain an improved understanding of the variables and factors influencing or helping the explanation of rural students’ satisfaction of life in rural areas. Statistical population included 420 rural graduate students of the Khouzestan Ramin Agriculture and Natural Resources University. The study sample consisted of 200 individuals who were selected through simple random stratified sampling method and Krejcie and Morgan tables. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, the face validity of which was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was also approved by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α= 0.62-0.90). The results showed that the variables of moral norms, image of rural areas, perceived quality, and life satisfaction in whole, commitment and place identity had positive impacts on perceived value; also, moral norms and perceived value had a significantly positive impact on residential satisfaction and these two variables could predict 59 percent of variations in residential or community satisfaction. The results of this research can help rural development planners in preventing the rural depopulation and migration to urban areas.

This study aimed at investigating the effects of rural tourism development on different cultural aspects in the host society. Data analysis was conducted through a TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model. The results indicated that in the scope under study, tourism was effective in appearance of cultural changes. In addition, there was a significant correlation between tourism development and cultural changes in the studied villages. Furthermore, most effects could be observed in fashion, food consumption, expansion of consumerism, family relations, native language and accent, participation and security feelings. Therefore, it might be claimed that tourism development not only had no contribution to the survival of local culture in these fields, but also jeopardized them with different threats in the studied villages.

Micro insurance is a key issue for improving the living conditions of the poor. This research aimed at a feasibility study of application of rural micro insurance in rural areas of Iran. The research methodology was descriptive in terms of the strategy and a survey one in terms of the conduction run; and it was also an applied research regarding the target. The statistical population consisted of 81 experts. The data analysis tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, the validity of which was determined by a panel of professors; and its reliability was an acceptable amount of 0.93 found by a preliminary test and Cronbach's alpha. The statistical analysis was done in a confirmatory factor analysis method by using SPSS22 and AMOS18. Results indicated that the social requirements with the standard path coefficient of 0.929 had the highest and the educational-extension requirements with the standard path coefficient of 0.564 had the lowest effects for the use of rural micro insurance. Therefore, the study recommended that measures and facilities should be put in place to form micro finance cooperatives in partnership with the public and private sectors.

This research aimed at identifying the factors affecting the decrease in rural women’s desire for carpet weaving in Shiraz County of Iran. The statistical population included 38 rural carpet weaving women, meanly estimated by sample size formula, who were randomly increased to 80 individuals to obtain more accurate data. The carpet weavers were selected by referring to the concerned union. The research tool was a questionnaire responded by illiterate and low-literate wavers through interviews. Primary data were analyzed by a factor analysis. The results showed cultural, economic, social, technical, legal, environmental and health factors affecting the decreased tendency of the rural women to carpet weaving occupation. These factors explained 59.39 percent of the variance.

This study aimed at analyzing the performance of second homes in sustainable development of mountain areas. Two questionnaires were designed (host community and visitor community). SPSS and GIS software were used in data analysis. Research hypotheses with using Chi-Square, Friedman, Cramer`s V, frequency, Wilcoxon, McNamara tests showed dissatisfaction of the rural people with the second home tourists. Three hypotheses were tested at a significant level of 99 percent. From the residents’ viewpoints, the positive and negative roles of second homes included economic indicators (increased revenue, job creation and job diversity), social and cultural indicators (increased awareness, security and population density) and environmental indicators (waste disposal, environmental pollution and land use changes) that had been affected.