فصلنامه روستا و توسعه
سال دهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 39، پاییز 1386)

Empowerment of rural women is one of the most important issues in development. The increasing rate of rural mens’ migration to cities and industrialized centres necessitates the participation of women in economic practices. However, there are women, which in comparison with other women have limited endowments, because they lost the support and contributions of their husbands due to death, sickness, drug addiction or imprisonment. Empowerment is one of the main mechanisms to alleviate poverty among rural women. Women empowerment is often planned through microfinance projects which direct women to productive and income generating activities. There are different approaches to the extension of micro credits to rural areas with the intension to empower women, these can be classified according to their main orientations, ie market, state and community. The Agricultural Bank of Iran has designed and implemented a micro credit program for rural women head osf households. This article examines the impacts of micro credit dibursed by the bank on empowerment of rural women active in livestock sector in villages of Boueen Zahra covered by this program, some recommendations are also proposed to improve the performance.

A balanced rural urban migration is a part of a logical flow of the spatial interactions that is imperative for the development process of societies. But the issue of uncontrolled rural urban migration is one of the main problems of third world countries, including Iran. This issue has various consequences for both origin and destination. This paper deals with the issue of permanent rural migration to metropolitan Tehran. In this study we assumed that there existed some relationships between the level of development in a village and the degree, intensity and direction of rural urban migration. This survey research has been carried out in 15 villages of Tehran province which has been selected using stratified sampling method. First we identified the level of development of selected villages, and then the relationship between the level of development of the villages and permanent migration of rural households to city were examined. The results showed that there existed a significant relationship between villagers’ migration to Tehran and the level of development of that village. The main reason for migration was economic factor, and occupational or income differences.

The topic of this article is the attitude of rural people towards urban and rural life. The empirical data used for this study was obtained through interviews with 526 people in 64 villages in the provinces of West Azarbaijan, Esfahan, Khoozestan, and Golestan. A multistage cluster sampling method was used. The research results show that most respondents assess financial, welfare, employment, housing and nutrition conditions within rural life as average or below average. Age, marital status and the level of education of individuals does not seem to have an impact on their attitude towards rural life, although the attitude of women is more positive compared to men’s attitude. Most rural people have assessed the various aspects and dimensions of urban life positively. However the relationship between people in cities and their spiritual and mental as well as their physical health conditions have usually been assessed less favorably. Again, age and marital status has no impact on people’s attitude, but women’s attitude is more positive than men’s in this case too. As the level of education increases, the attitude towards urban life does become less positive though.

Today many authorities and scholars in social science reach to this consensus that income distribution is an effective factor in the creation of the differences in standard of living and socio-economic and cultural gaps and the incidence of poverty. On this basis it has been recommended that policy makers and planners devote special attention to distributive consequences of the adopted economic strategies and socio economic challenges emanating from socio-economic policies. The present paper examines income distribution in rural areas of Sistan-and-Baluchestan province during 1998-2001. In this study income distribution was estimated using Gini coefficient with two types of methods, i.e., separable and overall data.The results showed inequality coefficient has increased from 0.394 in 1997 to 0.428 in 2001in rural areas of the province. Also, the comparison of Gini coefficient within each decile has showed that inequality within the highest income household group (tenth decile) and the lowest income household group (first decile) were more than other deciles. Such that, Gini coefficient for the first decile has increased from 0.157 in 1997 to 0.222 in 2001 and for the tenth decile has increased from 0.129 to 0.266 in the same period. The Gini coefficient comparison among the poor indicated that on average the inequality among the poor was more than that of the households of first decile. In sum, in the population under study, poverty has not confined to first decile.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effective factors that influence the adoption of technologies that mitigate wheat losses in the periods of drought and low rain fall during 2001-2005. The research methodology is desciptive-correlational. The statistical population is the whole 22119 farmers in Khorasan-e Razavi province, who cultivated wheat during the crop year 2004-2005. The sample size is 357 according to Cochran statistics and by using multi stage purposive clustering method 291 questionnaires were filled. Face and content validity of the questionnaire has been examined and modified by subject specialists. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Conbach’s alfa which was equal to 0.87. The results show for 93% of farmers the level of adoption of technologies was low and very low. An examination of the types of technology indicated that the highest level of adoption was related to weed control, fertilizers distribution and regulation of seed plantation technologies respectively. Personal characteristics of a farmer and his farming method had significant relationship with adoption of technology. The linear multivariate regression model showed that “technical know-how concerning the wheat losses mitigation technologies” could explain 23.3% of changes in technology adoption variable.

In recent years natural resource economists have made several attempts to value and assess the role of natural resources in the provision of human welfare. This study is an attempt to calculate the existential value of Zoshk summer resort using conditional valuation method. The people’s willingness to pay is measured using a logit model. In addition, Tobit model is used to study the contributing factors to the level of willingness to pay. The results of study show the monthly average level of willingness to pay is 11300 Rials(135600 Rials annually) for existential value of Zoshk summer resort.

Although dependency theory and its dominance in research literature caused negligence of the positive socio-economic impacts that migration had in rural areas, the impacts of migration on development have been considered with respect to migrants’ role and remittances on the welfare of the household, investment, and technological transfer. Considering the insufficient attention to the subject in Iran, this paper examined the role of rural migrants residing in cities on development of villages in Ramsheh subdistrict. The present research is an applied one and its methodology is descriptive- analytical. Required data was collected using field methods and filling questionnaires from rural households and migrants residing in cities.The results showed that migrants residing in Tehran maintained and strengthened their relationship and formed different social organizations. They aim to develop and prosper their birthplace villages. They have kept their farmlands and expanded them. They have sent remittances and transferred technology. They participated in village development and construction and direct investment in village industries. They had a major role in revival, and economic diversification of the village.

Rural industrialization strategy has a significant role in achieving national development goals. Spontaneous establishment of industrial units in proximity of Kamard village has various environmental and socio-economic consequences and impacts for the area, so an examination of these is necessary on regional and local scales. Research methodology is observation and library research and we use economic basis for the analysis of local employees and to derive a locational coefficient for industrial groups currently present in Kamard industrial zone. The results show, during 2001-2005 the total number of industrial units remained unchanged but diversity of industrial groups reduced and just four industrial groups remained in basic industries. Generation of the environmental pollutants endangers human health and environmental vitality, such that drinking water and agricultural water contamination are respectively 50 times and 25 times higher than the COD standard. Generation of 431 job opportunities per annum provides employment and income for the local and non-local population, in so far as non local employees are three times more than local employees in basic industries.