یوسف قنبری

Purpose- In addition to preservation of and getting religious and legal rights of the government and people, one of the most important goals of ownership and consolidation of national and government domains is to keep and develop renewable natural resources and to allocate them for development of agricultural and productive activities. The ultimate goal of the legislator, has been movement towards comprehensive agricultural self-sufficiency, deprivation reduction, and development in villages. The present study aims at investigating the effect of national land resource allocation on rural sustainable development. As a result, the rural districts of Northern and Southern Bar’an, as a part of the central province of Isfahan, were selected. Design/methodology/approach- The present study is applied in terms of aims, descriptive-analytical in terms of research method, and survey study in terms of data collection. Data collection was performed through library and field studies. The population of the research consisted of farmers of five villages of the Northern Bar’an rural district and five villages of the Southern Bar’an rural district and 30 experts. A sample 260 farmers were selected using Cochran formula. Findings- The results indicated that the effectiveness of the allocation of national and government lands on the dimensions of rural sustainable development is at a moderate level. It shows poor efficiency of allocation of national and public land resources. Research limitations / implications- Problems like farmers' reluctance to cooperate and questionnaire distribution were among the challenges faced in this research. Originality/value: Given the importance of the studied region in production and agricultural, the findings of the present study can be regarded a big step in exploiting the potentiality of this region to determine strategies for sustainable rural development.

Purpose - The objective of the study is to assess the satisfaction rate of village residents from life quality as a factor affecting immigration, together with the sense of belonging as a factor preventing immigration, and the correlation thereof, among the residents of Khosrowabad village (statistical population=672) in Konani district, Kuhdasht county. Design/methodology/approach- The method adopted is descriptive-analytic. The sample collected by Cochran sampling method constitutes 262 residents. The data required in this study are obtained by questionnaire and the descriptive inferential statistics is applied for data analysis. Findings: The results reveal that the satisfaction rate of residents from life quality in Khosrowabad village is lower than that of the average. The satisfaction rate of males with 2.88% is higher than that of females with 2.85%. The regression analysis results indicate that the economic index with 0.244 β is the most effective on life quality. The analysis of the sense of belonging revealed that the rate of this variable is higher than that of the average and the psychological-tranquility index with 0.493 β is the most effective. As to the Spearman test, the correlation between life quality satisfaction and sense of belonging is significant at 99%. Research limitations/implications- Life quality is a multidimensional issue with various definitions and theories thereof. The villagers’ attitude towards life quality and its indexes is restricted. Originality/value- The attitude in this study towards such issues like life quality and sense of belonging is different and the study area is being exposed to this type of study for the first time.

Purpose - Rural production cooperatives (RPCs) play an important role in sustainable development in rural areas by considering three principles: domination, possession, and agency in the agriculture sector. The purposes of this study are to measure the stability of RPCs and presenting effective strategies to achieve it from the managers’ view point. Design/methodology/approach - The present study is a mixed-research method using analytic-descriptive method, including two different questionnaires. One questionnaire aiming at prioritizing and measuring the stability of the RPCs was prepared and presented to the members of RPCs. Stability was measured with 24 indices in three economic, social, and environmental dimensions using Shannon Entropy technique, according which the cooperatives were prioritized. The other questionnaire was prepared to present the best approach to achieve sustainable development from the view point of the managing directors and the board of directors. The best strategy was adopted using SWOT and ANP analysis. Findings - Regarding the sustainable development, the findings of the study indicated that among rural production cooperatives in Isfahan, 12 cooperatives were unstable, 8 cooperatives were semi-stable, and 8 cooperatives were stable; this type of farming system is semi-stable. Developmental strategy (SO) was adopted as the best strategy to achieve sustainability, and the focus was on endogenous development through reinforcing internal strengths to obtain external opportunities. It includes promoting self-reliance through increasing members’ participation in cooperative, empowering the staff and members (i.e. the experienced managing director and the staff with required specialty and expert holding promotional classes), using multilevel, multi-sectorial, multi-cluster, collaborative, and holistic approaches to manage the RPCs, and promoting systems based on collaborative team work. Practical Implications - In rural sustainable development planning, sustainable farming systems must be considered as the focal core of any development plan. Since a big part of farming system in rural areas is devoted to smallholdings, promoting cooperation culture by the rural development planners can prepare the ground for empowering the villagers to obtain sustainable development. Originally/value: For the first time in Iran, the current research attempted to present functional strategies for RPCs development using a mixed-method design.