Designing Sustainable Employment Mechanisms among Tobacco Farmers in Dashtestan

Villages play an undeniable role in economic, socio-political growth in the social and demographic system of countries and agriculture as a strategy for rural development includes most of the economic activities of villagers. Currently, the phenomenon of sustainable employment in rural communities is more important than before because sustainable job development among villagers is an important strategy that can improve the rural development process. Therefore, only by increasing employment in rural areas can the phenomenon of migration be prevented because agricultural resources alone will not meet their needs. The depopulation of villages can be a major threat to the food security of the community. In this way the aim of this study was to design sustainable employment mechanisms among tobacco farmers.

In this study, the qualitative paradigm and grounded theory of the foundation were used to identify the mechanisms of sustainable employment. Participants in this study included 18 tobacco farmers with more than 10 years of experience in Dashtestan. The samples were selected using snowball sampling method and the criterion for the number of subjects was theoretical saturation. The method of collecting information extracted from the interview participants was semi-structured.

The results of the collected data revealed 48 main challenges among tobacco farmers. Factors of lack of support and purchase of the product at a reasonable price by the city tobacco department, the occurrence of numerous pests, lack of support for domestic production and increase in imports, lack of government support for the agricultural sector, high cost of buying agricultural inputs in the open market and brokers are the most important problems. He was a tobacconist. Factors extracted in 7 economic and support mechanisms (13 factors), agriculture and environment (9 factors), marketing (9 factors), industrialization (4 factors), education and skills (3 factors), policy (6 factors) and motivational (4 factors) were categorized and analyzed. Finally, the mechanisms were placed in the form of Strauss and Corbin models based on their nature.

In general, the results of this research can provide new insights for rural and agricultural development policy makers because all issues and problems of tobacco workers' employment have been identified and with careful planning can help to stabilize them. In this regard, it is suggested that by holding training courses and workshops, they provide the ground for the development of cultivation of this crop among farmers based on scientific and precise principles.