An Analysis of the Factors Driving the Diversification of Economic Activities of the Villages of Masal County

Diversification of rural economic activities as a basic and parallel approach to rural development goals can help to develop and advance employment in rural areas. Objective In this study, this issue and an analysis of the factors promoting the diversification of economic activities in the villages of Masal city have been studied. This research is applied and the method of doing it is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population of the study is 68 villagers and experts of economic institutions of Masal city and the sample size was determined using Cochran's formula. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire whose items were prepared and arranged with the expert opinions of university professors. SPSS software was used to analyze the data and showed that 23 promoting factors are involved in diversifying economic activities in rural areas of Masal city. The results of the Friedman test showed that the index (existence of several fields for attracting tourism) with an average rank of 20.09, has the most importance and the index (literacy level of rural youth, especially girls) with an average rank of 5.53, has the least importance among the factors. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the development of a comprehensive plan to diversify the rural economy of Masal city by identifying and including all the capacities of the region is one of the items that should be a priority in the work of the city officials.