Factors affecting rural development with emphasis on the formation of agricultural clusters(Case study of Gonabad city, Khorasan Razavi province)

Agricultural clusters are one of the new agricultural organizations that can have an important impact on rural development. The present article examines the factors affecting rural development, especially the role of agricultural clusters in Gonabad. To achieve this goal, the scalogram index, location index and partial least squares method have been used. The results of the development index show that the villages of the suburbs around the city of Gonabad are developed, the villages of Paskloot and Zibad are relatively developed and the villages of Kakhk are in the undeveloped category. Also, based on the results of spatial coefficient index, three products of pistachio, saffron and barley were selected to form clusters. Then, to determine the factors affecting rural development in the study areas, the partial least squares method was used and the results of this section showed that the formation of these clusters is effective on the rural development process in the region; Therefore, it is suggested that by forming pistachio clusters in Paskloot and saffron in Kakhk rural district, by improving the economic performance index and cluster index to help improve the rural development situation, especially in underdeveloped villages.