فصلنامه پژوهشهای روستایی
سال سیزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 51، پاییز 1401)

Lending microloans for employment creation and prosperity of production is an appropriate way to empower the poor, generate income, reduce poverty and improve food security. Nevertheless, the evidence shows that part of these microloans is faced with moral hazards and spent on non-productive affairs. This study aimed to investigate the spending of business microloans granted by local microcredit funds in the county of Qaleh Ganj in Kerman province and to identify the most important factors affecting their efficient usage. The statistical population consisted of 21,000 rural members of the microcredit funds set up in Qaleh Ganj County. The sample size was calculated using the G*Power software (n = 203) and the sampling was carried out by multistage sampling. The results showed that 46.8% of the members used their production loans in a non-productive way and took it out of the business, 44.3% of the respondents used their loans to maintain their previous business and 8.9% of them used their loans to create new jobs. Logistic regression analysis showed that the variables, namely "times of supervision", "number of group members", "dissatisfaction with high monthly installments", "perceived behavioral control", "perception of job performance", "perceived career advancement prospects" and "level of education" have explained between 46 and 61 percent of the individual membership in both groups of the dependent variable "using business microloans for business development".

Sustainable rural employment has always been one of the most substantial goals of countries. As an important type of tourism, rural tourism plays a vital role in this context. The COVID-19 pandemic led to many challenges for the tourism industry, and the subsequent negative consequences made countries take some effective measures for the period coming after the pandemic. Scenario writing is one of the measures taken in this case. Accordingly, the crucial purpose of the extant study was to examine the role of rural tourism in developing sustainable employment of residents during the post-corona era by using a scenario-planning approach. The mixed method was used in this research by employing an exploratory-sequential approach within two qualitative and quantitative phases. Thematic Analysis and Scenario Planning were used in the present paper. The statistical population of the study comprised of experts in rural management and planning, rural tourism, public administration, social work, sociology, and rural geography who were examined based on the purposive sampling method. According to findings of the first phase conducted using thematic analysis, the themes extracted from semi-structured interviews were classified into 48 basic, 14 organizing, and 4 global themes used to identify drivers in the next step. Following quantitative results, four scenarios were found, including Economic open doors, Second home tourism, Economic defense shield, Economic isolation and Lockdown. Therefore, rural tourism not only contributes to sustainable employment development but also affects residents, especially their job creation and income. Rural tourism has led to a considerable change in labor mobility in villages by enriching job choices and diversifying more sustainable rural employment.

One of the sustainability challenges is the gap between sustainability guidelines and action-based decision-making by the target communities. Farmers' behavior as a decision-maker is also a factor influencing the future of sustainability. Interdisciplinary approaches such as human-environmental systems are effective for sustainable management and solving the challenges of sustainability. For this purpose, this study was conducted to investigate the sustainable behavior of agricultural stakeholders and evaluate the separation of behavioral antecedent levels of capability based on sustainability indicators in the form of five capitals and individual characteristics of farmers. The statistical population of this study included 5024 agricultural stakeholders of Ghalehgang County, of which 389 people were selected as a sample by stratified sampling method with appropriate proportion, and two behavioral antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived compatibility were measured. The research tool was a questionnaire and its validity and reliability were assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis using Lisrel 8.80 software. The statistical method for distinguishing and predicting the status of behavioral antecedents was binary logistic regression using SPSS 25 software. The overall result of the research shows that physical stability indicators are an important variable in predicting the behavior of users. It also turned out that the residence location is effective in predicting behavior. Regarding the individuals' perceived usefulness component, human indicators and the type of water source are significant, while for the perceived compatibility component, social indicators and the type of agricultural activity have a more significant predictive effect.

Rice waste is one of the agricultural wastes in Guilan province and a source of livestock feed. Most of it is imported from abroad. Therefore, abundant rice waste and livestock need for fodder provide a good opportunity for entrepreneurship. This research has a quantitative approach with an applied orientation. The purpose of this study is to identify barriers to entrepreneurship development from rice straw as animal feed. The statistical population of the research is 180000 rice farmers, out of which 400 farmers from 40 villages and 10 farmers in each village were randomly selected as a sample. Data collection was performed using a questionnaire and data analysis was performed using factor analysis model. The results show that the factor of facilities and natural conditions include variables of humidity, rainfall, lack of storage and machinery with a eigenvalues of 2.5 and a percentage of the variance of 30.9. Socio-cultural factors including variables of knowledge, education, and poor management with a eigenvalues of 1.93 and variance percentage of 11.4, financial factors including the cost and capital shortage variables with eigenvalues of 1.36 and variance percentage of 8.7 and ownership rate including variables of a number of livestock and land with a eigenvalues of 1.26 and percentage of the variance of 5.5 6, are the most important disincentive factors of the straw entrepreneurship development, is known as animal feed. We conclude that by removing this barrier, entrepreneurship can be developed and the problem of providing livestock feed in the province will be solved to some extent.

The issue of the present study is the relationship between participation and development, especially social development. One of the most important issues in social development is rural development plans. The success or failure of rural development plans or projects depends on the degree of involvement of local communities in the plans and their evaluation of the projects. In order to find out the relationship between rural participation in general in the development projects of Barakat Foundation (affiliated to the Executive Headquarters of Imam Khomeini), this study has studied the villages of Sarvabad city of Kurdistan province in the years 97-99. The research methodology was quantitative and with survey technique and questionnaire tools. The statistical population of the study included all stakeholders in Barakat Foundation projects during the years 97-99 in Oraman, Payglan, Bisaran and Jerizheh districts. The sample size was determined based on Cochran's formula and the sampling method was done by stratified sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect data, which was designed based on the objectives of the research. Then simultaneous regression analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient were performed on the collected data using SPSS Ver23 software. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between social justice, institutional trust, people's satisfaction with development projects, social belonging, socio-economic status and public awareness of Barakat Foundation projects with the level of social participation in Barakat Foundation projects. In other words, these factors can be considered effective factors on people's participation in the projects of the Barakat Village Foundation in Sarvabad city.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the requirements of using new digital technologies in order to improve the sustainable livelihood of farmers. This research is a survey research. The statistical population of this research included all the farmers of Tehran province who have used modern digital technologies in their farms and their number is 112. Due to the limited number of farmers who have used new digital technologies, all of them were surveyed using a census. Data analysis was done using the structural equation method (SEM) with the help of Smart PLS3 software. The research findings show that the educational requirements of using new digital technologies with a path coefficient of 0.236 have a positive and significant effect on improving the sustainable livelihood of farmers, as well as economic requirements with a path coefficient of 0.234, structural requirements with a path coefficient of 0.146, institutional requirements with a path coefficient of 0.135, policy requirements with a path coefficient of 0.118, management requirements with a path coefficient of 0.114, and skill requirements for using digital technologies with a coefficient of 0.104 have a positive and significant effect on sustainable livelihood.

Rural tourism is one of the types of tourism that plays an important role in the development of the rural areas. One of the important issues in rural tourism is the competitiveness of tourism destinations, which has been given much attention to in order to increase the potential of the destinations. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the effective factors in the competitiveness of tourism in Dohzar country and provide appropriate solutions for it. The research method is descriptive-analytical and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The statistical population of the study is the residents of Dohezar country who were randomly selected using the Cochran method as a statistical sample by simple sampling of 384 people. SPSS _ PLS software was used to analyze statistical and inferential data. The results show that the coefficient of effectiveness of components such as supporting the growth and development of tourism (3.154), hospitality and tourism reception (3.050), competitive analysis (4.566), development (5.774), location (3,626), and visitor management (4,055) have a greater impact on the growth and development of tourism in Dohezar country and among the variables of competitiveness, only Core resources & Attractors have an impact on the growth and development of tourism. And other variables such as Supporting factors, Destination management, Destination policy, Planning and Development, Amplifying determinants, even with the moderating role of supporting local communities, do not affect the growth and development of tourism.

Drought or instability of agricultural water resources has effects in various economic, social, political, environmental, etc. dimensions, especially in rural settlements. In this research, the relationship between the instability of water resources in the agricultural sector and rural development in the form of environmental, economic and social dimensions in the rural settlements of Rafsanjan plain has been investigated. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on a quantitative method. Based on Cochran's formula, the number of questionnaires from 53263 rural households or small towns with the rural economies is estimated to be 380, and during the research and based on the limitations and removal of incorrect questionnaires, the number of samples reached 313. Questionnaires have been distributed in 16 rural districts. Then, the average of economic, social and environmental indicators, migration and quantity and quality of water were analyzed in SPSS software and the results were analyzed to measure significance in independent one-sample, binomial or binomial and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. The results of the research show that the investigated environmental indicators with an average of 3.99, economic indicators with an average of 3.88 and social indicators with an average of 4.004 on the five-point Likert scale are affected by drought. Based on this, after the occurrence of water scarcity or drought, the natural and human environment is affected and the rural development in the environmental, social and economic dimensions in the Rafsanjan Plain is disrupted and issues such as the reduction of the area under agricultural cultivation, income reduction, and land subsidence have led to poverty, unemployment, immigration and environmental consequences.

The concept of sustainability has long characterized the rural architecture of Iran. However, today, social and economic changes have brought about developments in rural architecture, as modern villages have focused less on the concept of sustainability. Old rural architecture has valuable sustainability indicators which can be utilized in new designs. This research investigates the component affecting sustainability creation and its representation in the architecture of Armian village. This research was applied in terms of goal and descriptive-analytical in terms of methods. First, library sources were reviewed to determine the effective components. Then, a theoretical framework was presented after the content analysis, as the village of Armian was examined following field studies and analytical methods. Results indicated that social, cultural, economic and environmental dimensions contributed to rural architecture sustainability. As regards the social sustainability dimension, such components as social identity, sense of attachment, social interactions, vitality and social security; as regards cultural sustainability dimension, such components as participation and solidarity, cultural heritage and capital, value and cultural value; as regards economic sustainability dimension, such components as the type of material, effectiveness and avoiding nullity, employment and subsistence; and as regards environmental sustainability dimension, such components as an adaptation with the climatic conditions, dynamism and adaptability, respect and preservation of the environment were effective. These components and indicators have been noted in the Armian village fabric and housing. The Armian village architecture is an example of local, sustainable architecture in conformity with the rural life's identity, climate, culture and lifestyle.

Expansion of cities on the fringes has caused the loss of natural landscapes, agricultural lands and environmental problems. Restoring and improving these effects based on the principles of environmental design is a necessary matter. Considering the current state of development of Arak city on the eastern edge, it is very important to pay attention to this part due to the value of high-quality soil, the existence of rural areas, gardens and agricultural lands. In this paper, a part of the eastern fringe of Arak was studied by satellite data and remote sensing-based ecological Index (RSEI) that includes four sub-indices: built-up area, vegetation cover, land surface temperature and land surface moisture. Integrating them was done by principal component analysis. The results showed that the lower ecological quality in different areas was caused by the development of infrastructures, impervious urban surfaces, industrial lands and in general the spaces resulting from the pressure of human activities and the ecological quality was higher in gardens, active rural agricultural lands and scattered parks and green spaces. Then, the results were analyzed in the pressure-state-response framework, and a part of the land named "Qanat Naseri" was redesigned in order to maintain and expand the existing ecological values based on the results and analysis.