An Analysis on Capabilities of Agricultural Sector of Southern Khorasan to Have a Sustainable Development Managed by the Application SWOT Model

At Present, analytical methods are commonly used in feasibility Studies of economic sector developments. The current study aimed to analyze and measure the capabilities of southern khorasan province for sustainable development by using SWOT model including four concepts of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The research method based on objective is of applied type and based on nature and method is of analytical-descriptive and surveying type.To identify, weighting and ranking the agricultural elements of the study area, the attitudes of farmers and 150 experts of agriculture part from different organizations and with different specialties as farming, gardening, watershed management, pedology, irrigation and agricultural economy were taken into account and the weaknesses and strengths of local agriculture in achieving sustainable development were identified. The results showed that the local agriculture has the potential required for development. Then, the promising implementation of the organizing plans of independent farmers is the main opportunity factor with the weighted score 0.1864, Incongruency of water shedding funds, is the main threat with the weighted score 0.2208, The high potential of producing crops, such as barberry, saffron, jujube and olives is the main strength with the weighted score 0.1944, and lack of proper and coherent statistics and data resources is the main external and internal factors of the agriculture sector of southern Khorasan province with the weighted score o.1716. more over, all provided strategies provided in this regard are classified in 26 items among which the improvement of the productivity of local water resources and the introduction of an standard cultivation pattern based on the matrix QSPM has the highest priority with the high weighted score 15.6598. The standard consumption of water resources, planning for preventing and diminishing drought effects, reducing desertification rates and providing beneficial mechanisms with the respect to mechanical and scientific measure have the second up to fifth priorities with the weighted score 15.4242, 15.1402, 15.0706, and 15.0638, respectively. Moreover, The improvement of profitable crops as saffron and barberry with the weighted score 14.3886 can bring about a stable agricultural condition in Southern Khorasan and especially its rural areas in international view.