Analysis of the Impact of Agricultural Development Policies on Indicators of Sustainable Rural Development (Case Study: Rudsar County)

Subject Areas : Rural and nomadic studies

elham mohskbid ¹ , Teymour Amar ² , Mohammad Baset Ghoreyshi ³

1 - PhD Student of Geography & Rural Planning, Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran

Received: 2020-12-10 Accepted : 2021-03-11 Published : 2024-08-22

Keywords: Rural Planning, Sustainable Development, Agricultural Development Policy, Rudsar County,

Abstract :

Introduction: Given the numerous roles that villagers play in the national development process, especially in the field of food supply, the sustainable development of these areas is of great importance.

Research Aim: This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of agricultural sector measures in sustainable rural development in Rudsar County.

Methodology: The present study is applied in terms of its purpose and its method is descriptive-analytical. In this study, first, the level of access of 195 sample villages to various basic and supportive policies was assessed qualitatively using the questionnaire technique. Then, the status of the sample villages was examined based on sustainable development indicators. The statistical population of the present study is the inhabited villages of Rudsar County. According to the latest population statistics of Guilan Province in 2016, Rudsar County has 395 inhabited villages. Therefore, the sample size using the Cochran formula and at a 5 percent error level will be equal to 195 villages. This sample size is distributed based on the relative share of villages in each rural district.

Studied Area: The geographical scope of the present study is Rudsar County.

Results: The findings showed that the rural community in Rudsar County is more stable in terms of social dimension than economic and environmental dimensions with an average score of 2.998. Based on the results of multi-criteria linear regression modeling, in the field of employment variable, agricultural mechanization policy had the most impact with a coefficient of 0.456. Agricultural mechanization, water resources management, marketing, and education and extension were effective on rural community employment. Regarding the dependent variable of income, rural land integration, agricultural mechanization, and agricultural product pricing were respectively the most effective. Rural land integration and agricultural water resources management had 41.1 percent and 28.9 percent of the predictive power of the dependent variable of production, respectively. Pricing, marketing, and education and extension had the most impact on the link variable with the market economy. Agricultural mechanization had an impact on the stability of the rural population by about 54 percent. Education and extension was the only policy that had an impact on environmental quality. Rural land integration, water resources management, and agricultural input distribution also had an impact on the natural resources of the village.

Conclusion: The results of the study showed that adopting appropriate policies has positive effects on the productivity of total factors of production in the agricultural sector. In fact, determining appropriate and effective fundamental and supportive policies in the agricultural sector can lead to increasing the ability of producers and consumers of this sector to produce and consume agricultural products, and thus can have positive effects on the productivity of the agricultural sector and ultimately lead to sustainable economic development for villages.

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