وحید ریاحی

Purpose- The main objective of present study is analysis of viewpoints of Boyer-Ahmad local communities about rural development. The criteria of rural development are identified by a systematic approach from the standpoints of people who are aware of current rural issues in the investigated villages. In the next stage, the level of development of settlements was determined according to the identified criteria. Design/methodology/approach- The current study is based on qualitative methods (grounded theory) and quantitative (descriptive-analytical and survey). The required data was collected through the field methods (questionnaire and interview). The sample population of the study was determined to extract the indicators purposefully and based on the snowball method until the theoretical saturation of the interview with 18 people was reached. The statistical population of the study is the people living in the villages of Boyer-Ahmad County. 380 people in 10 rural settlements are assessed by employing Cochran's formula. The validity of the research questionnaire was confirmed by content validity and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. SPSS22 and ArcGis software were used for analyzing the data. Finding- In the index extraction stage, 51 concepts were identified in the form of 6 major categories. In the second stage, the results of one-sample t-test showed that rural settlements have a development coefficient of 0.35 in terms of the studied categories with an average of 2.46, which are at an undeveloped level. The status of development categories also shows that the category of environmental resources with an average of 3.31 has the best level and the category of quality of life with an average of 1.96 have the worst situation in the studied villages. The results also show that the Ganjeh Kohneh village with a coefficient of 0.43 and Mazdak village with a coefficient of 0.40 are in the middle development level and other settlements are in the undeveloped level. Practical implications- According to the results, solutions such as equitable distribution of services, development of a vision document for integrated development, diversification of economic activities and the use of social capital of villagers in the planning process have been proposed. Originality/value- Before planning at the local level, it is necessary to examine the views of the local community regarding rural development. There are differences between rural areas in terms of capabilities, talents, facilities and priorities, and local planning can take these differences into account.

Purpose - Value chain development is an approach to rural economic development, which promotes the development of businesses and farmers' access to the market, reduces poverty, increases income and sustains food security in rural areas. Design/Methodology/Approach - This study is mixed qualitative-quantitative research, and applied research and in terms of purpose. A non-probability sampling method was used in the research. The main method of collecting research data was semi-structured interviews with the selected sample. The interviews were continued until the theoretical saturation. At the end, 38 individuals participated in the interviews. Interview notes were classified and analyzed in three stages: open, central and selective coding. Ultimately, 20 respondents were selected to answer the questionnaires after reviewing the content. The data of the questionnaires were collected and combined as a direct input matrix in MICMAC Findings- Barriers to olive value chain efficiency were identified: 30 criteria, 10 subcategories and 5 main categories. The efficiency of the olive value chain in Tarom County depends on a proper marketing management, providing infrastructure, policymaking, planning and also the organizations and trade unions. These factors were the most important and influential factors that had high cohesion and influence among other factors. In contrast, variability of the purchase and sale price, taking advantage of buying the product below the price by the middlemen, pre-sale of the product by farmers, more product waste during storage, transferring the olives to processing factories in the county are the dependence criteria. Practical implications - Given that the olive value chain in Tarom County is not efficient, its efficiency depends on a proper marketing management, providing infrastructure, policymaking, planning and also the organizations and trade unions. Most of the mentioned factors are dependent on the institutional actors and agricultural managers, and indicates their important role in enhancing the productivity of the olive value chain. Originality/Value- The results of this research can be a good way to solve problems and obstacles to agricultural development in rural areas.