The effects of diversification into economic activities on the welfare of the rural community case study: the central district of Kerman county

One of the important strategies for development is diversification into economic activities. Since the village is at the core of the formation of human societies, the issue of the stability of the rural economy is very important. Villages usually have a single-product economy, which causes the villages to retreat from development. So, we should look at ways in which rural economies could be transformed into a dynamic and powerful economy by diversifying the economic activities of rural households. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of diversification into economic activities on the welfare of rural households in the study area. To identify the variables of diversifying the economic activity (independent variable of the research) through theoretical foundations and research background as well as through the interview and guidance of the professors in this field. The statistical population of this study was 8956 rural households living in 11 villages in the district part of Kerman County. Out of these, 384 households were selected through Cochran sampling and 412 households were normalized to normalize the data. Data were collected through a researcher questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (.963). Data were analyzed by SPSS software using T-test single sample, regression and independent T-test. In the analysis, the villages of the study area were compared in terms of economic diversity and welfare. The results obtained from the hypothesis confirm the effect of the diversification into economic activities on the welfare of rural households. In fact, the results indicate that there is a significant difference between the households with and without the diversity of economic activities in terms of welfare. In other words, households with a variety of economic activities experience a higher level of welfare than non-diverse families.