Role of Production Cooperatives in Rural Development with Emphasis on Dimensions of Life Quality: A Case Study of Rahmat Sub-district of Seyyedan District, Marvdasht County of Iran

The study aimed at analyzing the role of production cooperatives in rural development with emphasis on quality of life. It was conducted in a descriptive-analytic approach. The statistical population included all the rural household heads who were the members of the production cooperatives in Rahmat sub-district of Seyyedan District, Marvdasht County of Iran. The sample size was determined by Cochran formula (n=274). The reliability of questionnaire was estimated by Cronbach's alpha (0.882). Methods of Kolmogorov-Smirnov, t-test with two independent samples and Mann-Whitney test were used for testing the hypotheses. The results showed that except for the environmental aspect, in other aspects (economic, social and infrastructural), there were significant differences between the two groups of production cooperative members and non-members; and the cooperatives had a useful and effective role in improving the rural people's quality of life.