جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « Empowerment » در نشریات گروه « علوم ترویج »

The purpose of this research was to determine the effective factors on the motivation of managers and staff experts to participate in the training courses while serving the staff of the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization and to identify and rank the motivational factors of the participants in the training courses. The statistical population of this research included 365 managers and experts, of which 190 were selected by simple random method based on Morgan's sampling table. According to the practical purpose, in terms of the data analysis method to investigate the relationship between the variables, the type of research was causal-communicative research, and in terms of implementation, it was a survey. The method of data collection was done using questionnaires. , the questionnaire had convergent validity and adequate reliability for the reliability of the questionnaires from theta An order was used in which the total theta of the variables was reported as 0.93. Statistical data was calculated in SPSSwin26 software. The findings of the analysis of structural equation modeling using PLS software showed that the variables, increasing knowledge and skills, educational rules and regulations, and job Extension are among the influencing variables in the motivation of participants in in-service training courses and three hypotheses were confirmed. And the hypotheses of the impact of organizational commitment, livelihood improvement and job security on the motivation of participants in agricultural training courses while serving employees were not confirmed.

Given the development trend in natural resources and Human-Environment Systems studies, there is an emphasized need for a more comprehensive perspective and approaches, such as examining coupled human-environment systems. In this regard, the role of rural women as key factors in sustainable knowledge has been highlighted, emphasizing strengthening home-based businesses as an effective solution to improve their economic and social status. The definition of home-based businesses focuses on economic activities carried out at the place of personal residence, utilizing household facilities. These businesses play a significant role in providing household income and contributing to the gross domestic product within human societies. The economic value and impact of home-based businesses on increasing household income and empowering rural women have drawn the attention of governments. In developed countries, these businesses are considered vital components of economic activities. As a suitable approach in Iran, home-based businesses can expand employment opportunities for rural women and contribute to their empowerment and poverty reduction in these areas. The present research aims to address which factors significantly influence the development of businesses, aiming to identify and analyze facilitative and driving factors for the development of home-based businesses among rural women in the Islam-Abad Qarb region.

This study investigates the factors that facilitate the development of rural women's home-based businesses in Islam-Abad Qarb County. A sample of 265 rural women engaged in home-based businesses was surveyed using a survey method. To determine the sample size, the Cochran formula was applied after conducting a pre-test on 30 individuals, resulting in a sample size of 161. The opinions and perspectives of these 161 rural women regarding the facilitating factors for the development of home-based businesses were examined. The research instrument consisted of a questionnaire the researcher designed, validated, and found reliable. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, standard deviation, variance, and means were used in data analysis using SPSS26. Furthermore, the data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis with the LISREL8.8 software, and goodness-of-fit indices such as RMSEA and absolute and comparative fit indices were employed.

The research findings indicate that educational and economic factors are the most influential factors in driving business development. Moreover, women's inclination towards financial independence and improving their own and their family's financial situation is the primary motivator for them to start a home-based business, which, according to the results, was agreed upon by the majority of the studied community. On the other hand, the least influential factor in business development was found to be related to social and cultural conditions. According to the results, rural women needed more knowledge and expertise while receiving their coaching training.

The development of home-based businesses and the enhancement of women's skills in this sector have a direct and positive impact on various aspects. On the one hand, these initiatives contribute to economic development and job creation; while on the other hand, they can lead to improvements in the social, cultural, and health conditions of women and their families. Various factors affect the development of rural women's home-based businesses, including educational, individual-behavioral, economic, governmental or infrastructural support, family-psychological, and socio-cultural factors. Identifying these factors can serve as a guide for planning empowerment and capacity-building programs for rural women. It is therefore suggested that the specific educational needs of rural women be identified first and then organized into specialized and practical training courses in collaboration with expert trainers. Additionally, measures are recommended to foster collaboration and solidarity among rural women, strengthen their entrepreneurial skills, and improve their psychological and social conditions.

It is very clear that in today's world, empowered women are one of the main indicators of the superiority of a society over other societies, because they will significantly increase individual performance to achieve society's goals. A developed society needs capable women so that they can create good and novel ideas and then realize them by participating in decision-makings and activities. Rural women, as hidden workers, play a vital role in home and farm activities, especially in planting, growing, harvesting, and processing livestock products. By empowering rural women, they can find appropriate solutions for problems in terms of technical, skill, interaction, etc. In other words, capable rural women can understand their duties well before they are told what to do . Empowerment strategies include equal access to opportunities, resources, credits, and education. Studies show that by empowering women, the whole society finds benefits, because empowered rural women expand the acquired capabilities in the family. They act like catalysts. By transferring the acquired abilities to others, on the one hand, the time to reach the development goals is reduced, and on the other hand, the desired goals are achieved more easily.

The present research is a sequential qualitative-quantitative mixed research with an exploratory approach. In the qualitative part, the dimensions and components of rural women's empowerment were first extracted using the meta-composite method. Due to the existence of an information gap in the data, an attempt was made to resolve this gap by using the foundation's data theory. The population of this phase of the research to conduct interview of a focus group included experts in the field of women (N=64) and a number of rural women who work in the projects of the Agriculture-Jahad Organization (N=36324). The categories extracted from the qualitative section were converted into questionnaire items, and in the quantitative section, they were validated with the help of a questionnaire survey and factor analysis. The population of the quantitative section included 80 experts from the Office of Rural Women Affairs and the service centers of Lorestan province. Due to the limited statistical population, all of them were considered as samples. In this phase, a five-item Likert scale was used to measure the importance of the measurement items. Ensuring the quality of the questionnaire, its validity and reliability were checked. The face validity of the questionnaire was checked and confirmed by providing corrective opinions of relevant experts and professors. Cronbach's alpha test was also used to check the reliability. The results showed that the questionnaire has acceptable reliability and all alpha values are higher than 0.70

The findings in the metacomposition section showed that 14 survey sources, 12 review sources, 13 descriptive sources, and 1 causal-comparative source were used in metacomposition, 70% of which had a quantitative approach, 27% a qualitative approach, and 3% enjoyed a mixed approach. Also, research tools included 23% of sources and documents; 57%, questionnaire; 10% interviews and 10% a combination of questionnaires and interviews. The results of the analysis in the quantitative part are chi-square value of 1.27 degrees of freedom, which is at the optimal threshold of less than 3. Also, the root mean square error of estimation (RMSEA) should be less than 0.08, which is 0.051 and acceptable. The values of goodness of fit indices of GFI and AGFI, NFI and CFI should also be more than 0.90, which in the present study are 0.97, 0.95, 0.97 and 0.98, respectively, and are at the optimal level. Therefore, the dimensions and components obtained from the qualitative step of the study have the necessary quality to present the rural women's empowerment model of Lorestan province.The t value of all indicators is higher than 1.96 and significant at the level of less than 0.05. Also, the values of the factor loadings showed that all the measurement items are at an acceptable level above 0.5. The values of Cronbach's alpha were higher than 0.7 and were acceptable. The calculation of composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) values and their placement at higher levels than the acceptance threshold of 0.7 and 0.5, respectively, also construct the validity. In order to check the diagnostic validity, the Fornell-Larker criterion was used. The investigation showed that the square root of the AVE values is all greater than the internal correlation values between the other components of the model at a significance level of less than 0.05. This finding shows how different the measurement items of one component are from other components. Based on this, the model has the necessary diagnostic validity.

In this research, it has been tried to identify and explain the dimensions and components of rural women's empowerment in Lorestan province. The findings of this research showed that although some dimensions of rural women's empowerment are consistent with the results of previous literature (such as educational, structural and socio-cultural dimensions); it is diverted in parts due to having a comprehensive, broad and context-oriented view on the problem of explaining and classifying the dimensions and components of rural women's empowerment through successive quantitative and qualitative mixed studies and including the benefit of focus group interviews with rural women and experts. The field of rural women is distinguished from other conducted researches. Based on this, the main dimensions of empowerment of rural women in Lorestan province include five dimensions of comprehensive education, individual-cognitive, economic, structural and socio-cultural, which have been reported in the findings of some previous researches. Therefore, the obtained results show double importance of these dimensions in the issue of empowering rural women and also achieving rural development. In addition, 52 items were identified, explained and classified for the twelve components of these dimensions.

One of the most important strategies offered for agricultural development is the empowerment and participation of farmers and greenhouse owners in various dimensions. Undoubtedly, the activities of the pillars of the agricultural knowledge and information system can play a significant role in this empowerment. Considering the importance of the topic, the present research was conducted with the aim of identifying the components of the empowerment of greenhouse workers, emphasizing the role of the pillars of the agricultural knowledge and information system, using the phenomenological approach in Razavi Khorasan province. The statistical population of the research consists of agricultural Jihad experts, academic experts, private sector experts and managers of greenhouses in Razavi Khorasan province. Informed people were collected by snowball method and data were collected by in-depth interview and direct observation. Data analysis was done based on Claysey's model. The initial coding process was done by identifying the evidence from the written interviews for 30 interviews, and the result of this step is the identification of 149 primary codes. In the second stage, 21 formulated meanings were obtained, and by categorizing them, the research theme, which is the factors affecting the empowerment of greenhouse owners, was identified. As a result of the analysis of the findings, six main themes of the achievements and consequences of the agricultural knowledge and information system with emphasis on the ability of greenhouse farmers, drivers, strategies and strategies, moderating conditions (supportive and supportive policies), background conditions, Achievements and consequences were obtained.

Livelihood diversity with emphasis on the off-farm activities and expansion of employment opportunities for different active groups in rural communities has been a successful approach in rural development. Disability is a reality that human societies should accept and consciously manage and plan for it, especially in high-risk rural environments where it occurs more often. Disability increases the burden on communities and the cost of living for rural households. This pressure is doubled when disabled people who are able to work and create value are deprived of getting a suitable job and opportunities to participate in the economic cycle are not provided for them. In the research conducted in the field of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurship of certain groups in rural communities has received less attention from researchers and managers of rural development projects. The rural disabled people of Kermanshah province constitute a significant part of the unemployed in the province, and only four percent of disabled people in the province are employed. Dealing with the entrepreneurship category of disabled people has multiple functions in economic, social and political dimensions. The aim of present research is identifying the factors affecting the entrepreneurship of rural disabled people in Kozran district in Kermanshah Township.

The general approach of research was mixed qual-quan method and data collection method was semi-structured interview. The participants in the qualitative part were 21 rural disabled people from Kozran district and 15 managers and experts of the welfare organization in Kermanshah province. The samples were selected using the purposeful sampling method and based on the rule of data saturation. The data of the qualitative section analyzed by the grounded theory coding method and using Maxqda software. At this stage, the validity and reliability of the research was investigated using four related concepts, including the concepts of credibility, transferability, verifiability, and reliability. The used method in the quantitative part was descriptive method of correlation. The statistical sample of this part was 130 rural disabled people with employability in Kozran sector. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Convergent validity (mean variance extracted) and divergent validity (Fornell and Larcker criteria) approaches used to check the validity and reliability of the questionaire. SPSS22 software was used in quantitative data analysis. In order to investigate the relationships between the researched structures, the method of structural equation modeling with partial least squares approach was used in the SmartPLS version 3 software.

As a result of the research data analysis, 58 concepts related to the factors affecting the entrepreneurship of rural disabled people were identified. These concepts are in the form of 15 structures and 4 main categories. Thise categories consisted of 1) the entrepreneurial competencies of rural disabled people include: commitment competence, learning competence, communication competence, and strategic competence. 2) Individual factors include utility and social identity; sense of altruism; entrepreneurial awareness and entrepreneurial personality traits. 3) Contextual factors include perceived local support; turbulences and limitations; perceived support from the family and human capital and 3) structural factors includes infrastructural-environmental factors; administrative bureaucracy and measures of the welfare organization. Also, 27 concepts related to entrepreneurship development strategies of rural disabled people were identified, in the form of five educational-empowerment strategies; cultivation and change of public attitude towards entrepreneurship of disabled people; support and material-spiritual support; diversification of the field of employment and branding of disabled products and improvement of the quality and quantity of human resources were categorized. The results showed that learning competence, human capital, turbulences and limitations, perceived support from the family and commitment competence are the most important factors affecting the entrepreneurship of rural disabled people. The findings of the quantitative model indicated learning competence with a beta value of β=0.811; human capital with a beta value of β=0.679; And turbulences and restrictions with a beta value of β=0.672 respectively have the greatest impact on the entrepreneurship of rural disabled people had the greatest impact on the entrepreneurship respectively of rural disabled people among the 15 identified factors.

Entrepreneurship of rural disabled people as a forgotten dimension of rural employment can be effective in realizing integrated rural development. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to pay attention to factors that facilitate the process of spontaneous employment of employable rural disabled people. This research was conducted in a mixed manner in line with this goal, and the results showed that rural disabled people and related experts have pointed out the lag of the atmosphere of rural entrepreneurship and the need to address it. Creating the basis for employment and using the talents of rural disabled people firstly requires the authorities and the rural community to believe in the possibility of employment for disabled people. Secondly, it requires finding talents and empowering the disabled, and finally, it requires the three basic dimensions of this pyramid, namely the family, officials and the disabled, to play a role and take responsibility. In this regard, reforms and institutional development of the employment of rural disabled people are the basis for the successful performance of these three dimensions. Therefore, it is suggested to update and facilitate regional laws and circulars to support the investors of the ideas of rural disabled people with a supportive approach. It is suggested to provide self-employment for rural disabled people by identifying and concluding contracts with related and potential sectors, and in case of using the potentials of disabled people in private sectors, tax exemptions, low interest facilities and subsidies for energy carriers for employers should be considered. In addition, networking and introducing the capabilities of rural disabled people in supply networks and the value chain of agricultural and rural products can be effective in developing the employment of rural disabled people.

The main purpose of the research is to explain a model of the application of production jump components, removing obstacles in the empowerment of rural cooperatives in Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad province.

Methodology/approach:

The current research is of the hybrid-alignment type. In the qualitative part, 10 experts of the cooperatives were selected using the targeted sampling method. In the quantitative part of the research method, it is a survey and 249 members of the cooperatives were selected by simple random sampling.

The results of the theme analysis identified 6 main components of the production jump-removal of obstacles: social, economic, political-legal, managerial, educational, infrastructural indicators. The results of the structural equations showed that managerial-organizational indicators with a standard coefficient of 0.220 have the greatest impact; And legal-political indicators with a standard coefficient of 0.125 have the least impact on the empowerment of rural cooperatives. Therefore, it is possible to improve the performance of this sector by creating obstacles and paying attention to production indicators in the cooperative sector.

In previous researches, factors affecting the success and performance of cooperatives were repeatedly discussed. In this research, while taking into account the indicators identified in previous researches, specifically, the indicators of production jump-obstacles in the light of the statements of the supreme leader of the revolution and the second step of the extraction revolution and their role in empowering rural cooperatives have been studied. The method and results of this research are innovative.

Rural women’s small businesses make huge contributions to the rural development. However, success and survival of these businesses has been a concern. Hence, it is critical to understand the factors influencing success of rural women’s small businesses. The present study examined whether two psychological sources, namely entrepreneurial resilience and empowerment were positively related to the entrepreneurial success of rural women. The statistical population of the study included all rural women entrepreneurs in Sistan region, Iran  (N = 1546). Then, 250 people were selected as the sample using a non-probability convenience sampling procedure. The research instrument was a questionnaire, which its face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α > 0.74). The results of structural equation modeling showed that entrepreneurial resilience and empowerment were positively and significantly related to the entrepreneurial success of rural women. The results also indicated that empowerment was indirectly related to the entrepreneurial success of rural women through the resilience. Therefore, it is suggested that rural women entrepreneurs’ psychological resources, especially resilience and empowerment be strengthened and developed in order to improve the level of their entrepreneurial success.

Education is one of the tools to increase the empowerment of women facilitators. For this reason, this study was conducted to investigate the educational factors affecting the empowerment of rural women facilitators in Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces. This research is field in terms of data collection and analysis and is causal in terms of possibility and ability to control variables. The period of this research was 2019 and the place of its implementation was Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces. The statistical population of the study is 850 rural women facilitators living in the two provinces (N = 850) and the sample size was 285 (n = 285) according to the Krejcie-Morgan table. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that they are underlying factors as one of the important contexts in increasing the empowerment of women facilitators such as officials' belief in the scientific abilities of rural women facilitators, positive attitude towards education and empowerment of rural women. According to the needs assessment and climatology of the target area of women facilitators and the existence of efficient educational organizations of rural facilitators and the causal situation and background conditions of education can explain up to 43% of the variability of capabilities of women facilitators of agricultural extension. In the meantime, the components of training methods and the background conditions of education have the most positive impact on promoting the empowerment of rural women facilitators.

Ignoring the main drivers affecting the empowerment of rural women, especially in the field of employment and entrepreneurship, always overshadows the employment potentials, entrepreneurial psychological capacities and the real position of women in the socio-cultural and economic development of a rural society. Therefore, improving the empowerment of rural women is a key factor in reducing gender gaps and one of the important pillars of the development of a rural community. In this regard, the purpose of the study in the form of 10 main hypotheses was to analyze the factors affecting the entrepreneurial empowerment of female-headed households in the villages of Sarab County.

This study is a descriptive-analytical research that was conducted by survey method. The statistical population included all female-headed households (N= 6101) in the villages of Sarab County. By multi-stage random sampling method with proportional assignment, 363 people from 18 villages and 5 districts (districts of Razliq, 77 people; Hoomeh, 100 people; Aberghan, 96 people; Ardalan, 46 people and Alan Baraghosh, 43 people) were selected as a statistical sample. To analyze the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling was used by PLS method with the help of SmartPLS 3.0 and SPSS 22.0 software. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire that used convergent validity (with the help of AVE) and diagnostic validity to evaluate the validity of the research instrument and factor load values, combined reliability (CR) and Cronbach's alpha value were used for the reliability of the research instrument.

The results of structural equation modeling showed that in terms of direct impact on entrepreneurial empowerment of rural women, the factors of employment potential, financial-economic and socio-cultural potentials had a positive and significant effect, respectively; But the effect of psychological factor on entrepreneurial empowerment of rural women was not significant. Also, the most important factors affecting the entrepreneurial empowerment of rural women due to the mediating role of job creation potentials (indirect impact), in order of priority, included psychological, financial-economic and cultural-social factors.

The conceptual model of the research has been able to explain the factors affecting the empowerment of rural women at the desired level. Although the psychological factor did not have a direct and significant effect on the entrepreneurial empowerment of rural women; But due to the mediating variable of job creation potentials, it has the greatest effect (0.131) in comparison with financial-economic and cultural-social variables on empowerment. Promoting psychological empowerment and encouraging rural women through educational programs to improve the psychological capacity of women in employment and entrepreneurship, organizing the conditions for more social and economic participation of rural women in rural development and entrepreneurship programs, strengthening the fund credit schemes, creating local markets with maximum participation of rural women and supporting their entrepreneurial businesses can be effective in improving their empowerment.

In recent years, the concept of "empowerment of rural women" has been used as one of the main pillars of rural development in rural development issues in order to improve the status of women and their society. This applied research was carried out qualitatively with a meta-synthesis approach and its data source included all the studies conducted by Eric, Science, Springer, Scopus, Elsevier, Scientific Information Database (SID), the portal of the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, the publication of national conferences, and Noor specialized journals in the time period of 2009-2019. In this regard, 240 related studies were evaluated. Finally, by performing the seven steps of Sandelowski and Barroso, forty articles were purposefully selected and by analyzing in open, axial and selective coding methods, their validity was confirmed by Kappa Kaufmann test. The results of the analysis showed that the effective factors in empowerment consisted of four dimensions including educational (production knowledge, self-awareness), individual (self-direction and productivity), structural (facilitating laws, production structuring) and socio-cultural (culture building and social activity power). The results of the present study, by creating a deep understanding of the existing literature on the empowerment of rural women, can be used in rural development policy to empower rural women by organizing the factors affecting it.

High unemployment of agricultural graduates is one of the main concerns of Iran’s higher education sys tem, which can reduce the motivation of Agricultural s tudents to be educated. Therefore, this research eliminate conducted to provide a pattern to empower Razi University agricultural s tudents to enter Iran’s market. with a Mixed (quantitative-qualitative) exploratory research design applied to conduct this research. Grounded theory for the quantitative part and cause-correlation method used to handle the quantitative part. The s tatis tical population of the qualitative part Consis ted of 108 agricultural faculty members at Razi University, Iran.By Interviewing 21 of them researcher achieved theoretical saturation threshold. In 2020-2021, there were 644 people, which according to Krejcie and Morgan table, 238 people were selected as a sample by proportional s tratified random sampling method. Data were collected through interviews in the qualitative section, which resulted in the design of a s tudent empowerment mode. In the quantitative part, information was collected from s tudents through a ques tionnaire that the content validity of the ques tionnaire was confirmed by opinion polls and convergent validity was confirmed by calculating CR = 0.82 and AVE = 0.77. The reliability of the ques tionnaire was determined using R software and the sequential theta coefficient was calculated for different parts of the ques tionnaire (Ө = 0.75-91) and the designed pattern was validated. Qualitative data analysis was performed through three s tages of open, axial and selective coding using Maxqda16 software. In the quantitative part, SPSSwin16 to inves tigate individual characteris tic and the partial leas t squares method using smartpls3 software to evaluate the measurement model. S tructural and hypothesis tes ts were used. The results of the research in the qualitative part resulted in the identification of 65 indicators in the form of seven categories of entrepreneurial, educational and research, psychological, ins titutional, environmental, individual and governmental factors. The results of the quantitative part of the research showed that all 7 research hypotheses are approved. Also, the value of multiple coefficients for s tructural equation is above 0.90, which shows that the exogenous independent variables related to empowerment have been able to explain more than 0.90 of the changes of the dependent variable. Due to the importance of empowering s tudents in the s tudy period to enter the job market and alignment of faculty members and s tudents comments on the components and indicators related to empowerment, the results of the research can be used to enhance s tudent's empowerment.

Various models of empowerment of deprived and poor communities have been provided, but their adaptation to different geographical and temporal conditions and contexts with different social, cultural and economic conditions limits their use. At a glance, the empowerment model has been developed by psychologists and health, management and human resources professionals as well as sociologists and social scientists. Therefore, this study aimed at achieving a model for empowering disadvantaged communities in Makran region of Iran with emphasis on the community-based empowerment approach in the rural areas. For this purpose, according to the concerned society, the qualitative method was used predominantly; at the same time, quantitative methods were used to measure the level of development and to obtain experimental samples. The main tool for data collection was a focus group at different levels with participatory observation. The research findings showed that empowerment should be implemented both "bottom-up" and "top-down"; in particular, empowerment in this community was an intertwined set of empowerments of individuals, institutions and government administrators as well as managers and organizational experts. Therefore, the empowerment model should be designed based on these three groups and with emphasis on general and skill training.

The purpose of this study is structural analysis of the role of components affecting the empowerment of rural entrepreneurs in Hamadan province with emphasis on the role of educational-terrorist components. To achieve this goal, a navigation technique was used. The statistical population of the study included rural entrepreneurs in Hamedan province who were selected using simple random sampling method and the required information was collected using a questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, SPSSWin22 and Amos Graphics software’s were used. According to the research findings in the inferential section and the structural model of the entrepreneurial family status subscales, the level of knowledge and education and the amount of access to production inputs had the greatest impact on the ability of the studied entrepreneurs. According to these coefficients, the lowest impact is related to psychological variables and the highest impact is related to educational variables. Accordingly, it is recommended that the relevant organizations, especially in the field of agricultural extension and education, identify the leading entrepreneurs and local leaders and use their knowledge in compliance with natural conditions to transfer it to entrepreneurs.

Researches show that many diseases have a nutritional origin and naturally produced foods are more beneficial to health. For this reason, attention to organic food products is on the rise. Since many businesses are engaged in organic food products, the main objective of this research is to provide a framework for successful performance of SMEs in organic food products. The present research is qualitative, applied and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection. The statistical population consists of experts in the field of small and medium enterprises in the field of organic food products. The statistical sample of this research was selected by non-probabilistic and purposeful method and based on the theoretical saturation rule, 13 people were interviewed. Thematic analysis method has been used to analyze the data. Based on the results, the factors affecting the successful entry and empowerment of SMEs in the field of organic food products include internal capabilities, customer motivating factors, facilitating factors and interactive capabilities. Finally, it is recommended that organic food businesses with regard to the characteristics of this industry and its market, increase their ability in three other dimensions of the research model include improving the company's internal capabilities in the field of physical resources and human skills, increasing customer trust in organic products and increasing the company's interactions with the environment, especially through institutional networking.

Cooperatives in the different economic, social and service sectors act as intermediaries between the government and the people and on creating and improving the spaces mentioned of businessare impressive. Hamadan province whit plenty of possibilities, has good conditions for breeding meat in the country and role of cooperatives in the success of this industry in the province can be effective nationally. This research was aimed at appraisal of fattened calf breeders' cooperative role of Hamedan province in enhancing capability (economic and technical) of cooperative ranchers. This study in terms of overall approach is quantitative andin terms of data collection and analysis is descriptive and causal. The study population consisted of member and non-member of fattened calf breeders' cooperativein Hamadan province (n = 9424) that using Cochran formula and randomized stratified sampling method from both groups 150 individuals were examined.The tool for gathering data was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by the opinion of 15 experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.80 value). The results showed that age, level of education and livestock capacity havesignificant relationship with membership in livestock cooperatives. Also in spite of their high membership background, most members are dissatisfied with their cooperative, while the results showed that membership in cooperatives has increased red meat production and member technical knowledge.

The main purpose of this study was to identify and explain the internal and external factors affecting the empowerment of rural women receiving microcredits in Kermanshah and Hamedan provinces. This research was a quantitative and descriptive-correlationd study which was conducted using a survey method. The statistical population of the study consisted of all rural women receiving microcredits in Hamedan and Kermanshah provinces (141 people). Data was collected through a questionnaire that it’s validity was confirmed by a panel of experts in women affair department of Agricultural Jihad Organization and agricultural extension, education, and rural development faculty members. Its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient which was higher than 0.8 for all parts of the questionnaire. Results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the variables such as "perceived adequacy of received credit amount", "the amount of income earned from the created job", and "the number of created jobs", and "participation in skills training courses" with the level of rural women empowerment. Among the variables, participation in skill training courses was the most important predictors of the rural women empowerment. In this research, based on correlation coefficients between variables, some recommendations were presented for improving the empowerment of rural women.

In recent decades, empowerment is considered to serve as a mechanism for achieving agricultural development and subsequently, socio-economic sustainability in rural settlements. In other words, lack of attention to empowering rural residents and lack of appropriate political and social infrastructure in rural areas is a major barrier to participation in the development of rural settlements. A survey was conducted through questionnaires. The required data was collected from the farmers of Semirom County, of whom 262 were selected using multistage random sampling. The process of empowering farmers measured, with a 67-item scale, including subscales such as education and information, awareness and knowledge, information technology, financial resources, trust building, cooperation, and decision-making on social and economic issues. Rural development with a 49-item scale in environmental, socio-economic and physical development of settlements dimensions. The results showed that the empowerment of rural farmers was effective in improvement of crop yields, growth of rural residents’ income, and sustainable socio-economic development of rural settlements. However, it is suggested to pay more attention to improvement of farmers' income, and support and lead them for increasing the rate of savings and their participation in investment activities related to agriculture sector.

In the conceptual frame of rural  and agricultural development, the emphasis on improving the quality and empowerment of rural women and advancement of their working conditions in rural communities is what needs to be carefully stressed. Entrepreneurship development and empowerment are in complementary touch with each other and lead to strengthening women in various entrepreneurial activities including social, economic and cultural fields. This research is set out to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship, empowerment capacities and analyze the structures affecting the various aspects of rural women's empowerment in Fars province. Implementing a survey method and questionnaires, the present research is conducted among rural women entrepreneurs membered in Agricultural Activities Backing Company  in Fars. Totally, a sample of 393 participants was selected through stratified random sampling. According to the findings of regression analysis, the variables of entrepreneurship motivation, entrepreneurship development, participation in training courses, entrepreneurship knowledge, the rate of applying information resources, environmental factors (business environment), supportive policies, and skills in compiling a business plan were able of predicting 56% of women's empowerment changes. The variables of entrepreneurship motivation in entrepreneurial activities, supportive policies and the skills of compiling a business plan depicted the maximum and minimum rate of predicting women's empowerment changes, respectively. The availability of  raw and in process materials, ratification of the appropriate laws in line with improving women's business, women's participation in training courses held by the company, improving the conditions for selling products, increasing more positive interest and motivation among the company members and paying attention to the  professional needs of membered women are among the focal suggestions of the present research.