Multifunctional Agriculture Paradigm; Rural Tourism, a key to sustainable employment development in rural areas

Iran’s rural areas and agriculture sector due to different challenge such as climate change and more frequent and severe droughts, water crises, rural migration and rural population decline, environmental pressures due to the inefficient use of external inputs, low efficiency of conventional agriculture are facing crisis and unsustainability. These arenas of concern have influenced recent researches and thinking on conceptualizations of agricultural and rural change and cause to the proposed transition from a ‘productivist’ to a ‘post-productivist’ agricultural regime or multifunctional agricultural. therefore, multifunctional agriculture as an approach to encouraging sustainable development in rural areas has become an attention point of agricultural and rural policy makers and has been introduced as a new paradigm of agricultural and rural development. the aim of this study is look at the new role for agriculture in rural areas by reviewing the concept of multifunctional agriculture. Next, review the rural tourism as a multifunctional role of farming is conducted. Due to different challenge in Iranian rural area, multifunctionality approach in contrast to conventional approach can promote and develop entrepreneurship space. Finally, suggested that accepting multifunctionality regime in agriculture sector by policy maker is an initiative to promote entrepreneurship space in rural area which in the consequence in the era of climate change, drought and water crisis will lead these regions move toward ssustainability.