sh. choobchian

Rural production cooperatives play an important role in reducing rural poverty by increasing production efficiency and providing services that governments are unable to provide for poor people. This research aimed to investigate the 12 components of the Legatum Index improving the welfare of rural households that are members and non-members of rural production cooperatives in Miandoab Township.

The present research was conducted using a survey and descriptive-correlational methodology. The size of the target population includes 17493 rural households, members and non-members of rural production cooperatives, and 377 households were randomly selected. Questionnaire was the main tool for data collecting. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of agricultural extension and education specialists at Tarbiat Modares University and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. To investigate the components of improving the welfare of rural households and checking the goodness of fit index, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used. Data were collected through structured interviews and analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software.

The results showed that there is a significant difference between member and non-member rural households in terms of welfare component status. So in the components of safety and security; individual freedom; governance; social capital; investment environment; entrepreneurial conditions; market access and infrastructure; economic quality; living conditions; sanitation and health; and education; there was a significant difference between member and non-member households, and only in the natural environment component, no significant difference was seen.

Rural production cooperatives played an effective role in improving the welfare of rural households in Miandoab City, and its average was calculated as 3.56; which shows the positive effect of cooperatives in improving the overall welfare of rural households. In this regard, it is suggested to provide entrepreneurship training to increase agricultural production, diversify the rural economy, and create the necessary foundation for increasing wealth.

Fisheries tourism is one of the types of tourism that has not received much attention in Iran, despite its good status. The benefits of the tourism industry with the high potential of the fisheries and fishing industry can provide an ideal option to connect the two industries in order to leave the difficult conditions of the fishery areas and move toward development. The first step in planning for fisheries tourism development is to accurately identify the potentials and fisheries' attractions to absorb tourists. Thus, the present study aimed to identify the tourists’ attractions of fisheries using a qualitative methodology with an exploratory approach. This research was applied in terms of purpose, and is descriptive and survey in terms of nature and method. The statistical population of this study was relevant subject experts. Using the purposeful snowball sampling method, 23 experts were selected to determine the panel of the experts based on their subject expertise, experiences, and the theoretical adequacy principle. In three rounds, the attractiveness and attractive fisheries activities for tourism were identified using the Delphi technique. In the first round of Delphi, 30 attractions and attractive activities for fisheries tourism were introduced by experts. After the removal of the less important items in the second and third round of Delphi, finally, the consensus was reached about 12 attractions of fisheries tourism, in three categories of fishing and fishery, fisheries industries, and coastal aquaculture.

Gilan province, one of the country's tourism poles in terms of its privileged natural location and climatic conditions, has many natural, historical, religious, cultural, social and economic attractions and numerous God-given gifts. According to the statistical yearbook of 2015, out of a total of 258 residences in the country, there was one tourism residence unit in Gilan province. In 2016, there were 5 accommodation units out of a total of 441 accommodation units, and in 2017, out of 540 ecotourism accommodation units, there were only three official ecotourism units, and this number reached 14 units in 2018. This statistic has grown significantly in the summer of 2019 and the number of eco-tourism residences in this province has reached 48 units. The rapid growth of ecotourism accommodations in recent years makes it necessary to provide proper services to tourists. This leads to the satisfaction and loyalty of tourists towards ecotourism accommodations. In this regard, the present research was designed and carried out with the aim at investigating the satisfaction with the service quality and the loyalty of rural tourists to the eco-tourist accommodations in Gilan province. In this regard, the American model of measuring customer satisfaction is the basis for measuring the satisfaction and loyalty of tourists. According to this model, the satisfaction of tourists in ecotourism accommodations is directly influenced by the quality of services, the expectations of tourists, and the value perceived by them. In addition to the direct effect, the quality of services and the expectations of tourists affect satisfaction indirectly through the perceived value. The satisfaction of tourists affects the loyalty of tourists both directly and indirectly (through the complaint reduction variable).

The study was descriptive - correlation and conducted through a survey method. The statistical population of the study included all rural tourists of ecotourism residences in Gilan province in 2020 year. The sample size was 315 tourists which were selected among five cities by using stratified random sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose content validity was confirmed by professors and relevant experts and its reliability was determined by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient between 0.72-0.89. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. To describe the variables mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage and cumulative percentage were used. To investigate the relationship between the variables, the correlation coefficient was used, and to calculate the difference between satisfaction and loyalty in different groups, the Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H tests were used. Finally, path analysis has been used to investigate the direct and indirect effects of variables on the dependent variable.

According to the results, tourists' satisfaction and loyalty to ecotourism residences were assessed at a good level. The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between service qualities, customer expectations, perceived value with the dependent variable of tourist satisfaction at the level of 1%. In addition, there was a positive and significant relationship between tourists' satisfaction and complaint reduction with the dependent variable of loyalty at the level of 1%. In comparison, the perceived value variable has a higher correlation with the tourism service satisfaction variable. In other words, the valuableness of the services received makes tourists more satisfied. Meanwhile, according to the results of the path analysis, the received service quality variable has the highest total causal effect on the satisfaction variable, and the service perceived value variable ranks second. The results of Mann–Whitney U tests showed that there was a significant difference between men and women according to the variables of satisfaction and loyalty at 5% level. In this case, men are more loyal than women. The reason for this difference is probably due to women's higher expectations of the services provided by eco-tourist accommodations. According to the results of path analysis, the variable of services quality has the most total causal effect on satisfaction and the variable of reducing complaints has the most direct and total causal effect on tourist loyalty. Dealing with tourists' requests, providing compensatory services, as well as the appropriate quality of the services provided, will lead to the loyalty of the tourist and his/her next visit to the tourist accommodation.

In the present research, the satisfaction and loyalty of tourists in eco-tourism accommodations has been measured using a valid and documented framework. Examining the mean of the main variables shows that all these variables are at a medium to high level from the point of view of rural tourists. In other words, tourists have evaluated the current state of service provided, fulfillment of expectations, value of services received, satisfaction with services provided, addressing possible shortcomings and loyalty to eco-tourism accommodations in an appropriate situation. In order to improve the quality of eco-tourism accommodation services and also since the monitoring of the implementation is considered a basic process, it is suggested to evaluate the performance system in eco-tourism accommodation, especially in the field of services to tourists.Considering the significant growth of eco-tourism residences in recent years in Gilan province and in order to prevent a merely quantitative growth and also with the aim of sustainability and permanence of these residences, the results of the present research can be taken into consideration by the officials and owners of the accommodations in order to gain the satisfaction and loyalty of the tourists.

The lack of accountability of government organizations to address the needs of stakeholders and the private sector and the provision of low-quality services to clients has increased dissatisfaction with government services. Therefore, providing quality services is essential to increase satisfaction with government organizations. Extension services are one of the main components of sustainable agriculture development in Iran and are provided to farmers through the Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO). Considering the low level of farmerschr('39') satisfaction with extension services, development of a system for assessing farmerschr('39') satisfaction as a strategic project has been emphasized. This study was conducted to develop the components of farmerschr('39') satisfaction with extension services and determine the factors affecting their satisfaction, in 2019. In this study, the classic Delphi method was used during three rounds. The expert panel consisted of nine university faculty members, 14 faculty members of AREEO, and 19 headquarters extension experts (n= 42). Delphi results led to the selection of 37 components to assess the satisfaction of farmers with the extension services. These components were classified using the constant comparative method in four main factors. These factors include technical and professional features of the extension experts, service quality, perceived effectiveness, and policy, management, and planning.

Agriculture is a main part to global warming through greenhouse gases because of activities such as deforestation, soil treatment and methane emissions from livestock. It is also one of the main users of fossil fuels; it means contributing further to greenhouse gases emissions. Both increased energy demand and reduction of fossil fuel reserves, have encouraged the interest for development of new technologies as renewable energies (RE). Renewable energy started to become a feasible solution. One of the most important kind of RE is solar energy. The solar devices will be able to help improve health and local economies. Solar water pump can be one of the most important and applicable devise in farms specially where there is no existing power line. Photovoltaic water pumps are very reliable and require little maintenance. In this regard, the present study has been conducted to investigate the role of photovoltaic water pumps in development of agricultural sector.