Economy

At present, agriculture is being considered as a major economic activity in Iranian rural settlments. It provides essential needs of the settlers, creates job opportunities, increases revenue as well as plays a prominent role regarding the peasant household’s economy. However, agriculture by itself is not capabale in reponsding to household livelihood. That is, there exists a need for complementary source of income such as fuel wood production units. The major objective of this study is to investigate the process of forming these producton units and to investigate their existance in Seemacan Fars. The research method is based on analytical – descriptivemethod. This is followed by filling questionnaire by village councils pertaining to 40 villages as well as 249 rural households. This study suggests that emergence of this type of complementary economic unites dated back to 1370. It speeds up in 1380. The majority of these production unites are located in pole be payee and Koshksar, moheet Ab and Ab shoykh. Economically speaking the income of each rural household is 2.5 times of regular, non dependent householdes to this source. Furthermore, there exists a significant relationships between unemployment (r=0.274) and per-capita agriculture land (r=-0.224). It is further suggested that there is a significant correlation between household’s economic status and p revalenceof these production units. The packaging factory and corresponding ::::union:::: and Insurance are highly recommended.

Accessibility of rural settlers to financial credit facilities is being considered as one of the important factor for development of entrepreneurship in ruralareas. As such, provision of micro credits could be a secured way for absorption of financial capital needed for development of entrepreneurship in rural areas. The allocation of this credit into agricultural sector could facilitate this process. This study aims to investigate the role of economic space needed for entrepreneurship in the analysis of allocation of group as well as individual credit in agricultural sector. The research method has applied as well as descriptive nature. It further deals with documentation; field works (questionnaire and interview) as well as application of descriptive and infernal statistics including K2, Freedman test, and correlation regression. Statistical society is composed of farmer of Ghanibeyghloo (Zanjan) and Khararood (Khodabandeh). This study suggests that an economic space needed for entrepreneurship pertaining to farmer is not in an appropriate state. However, this space pertaining to the receivers of these credits possesses on appropriate situation. Further suggests that those farmers who possess be her economic space for entrepreneurship is less likely to deviate from proper allocation of their provided credits.

Rural regions have experienced varied changes and social and economic reconstruction during last three decades. There exists great tendency toward functional integration between villages and cities due to increase in mobility, improvement in communication information as well as rural services. This in turn, resulted in the expansion of urban function including construction mass housing units, production, services, recreations and tourism activities in these regions. These functional changes case conversion in the nature of rural areas based on agricultural production, into consumption-orientation center. This new entities are non-homogeneous. This situation is influenced by many factors including physical conditions such as geographic location, isolation, and characteristics, climatic and sometimes human differences responsible for rural economic and social variations. Taking into account these variations and nonhomogeneities in rural area, efficient and optimum development plans are nonexistence. Increase in urban-ruralization around Tehran metropolitan has led to major physical, economic, social and cultural consequences. Lack of identification of the major relevant roots and sources has led to expansion of these negative consequences to other identical places. This in turn, demands the identification of the responsible factors and its change processes and mechanisms. Thus, the identification, explanations, exploration of those laws and frame works pertaining to urban ruralization as a major topical-spatial phenomenon is highly recommended. The first step in this regard is the determination, definition and assessment of ruralization and more specifically urbanruralization. The study area is Roobat Karim located in the vicinity of Tehran metropolitan. It is followed by determination of degree of ruralization as well as majorresponsible relevant factors.

Taking into account the nature and the objective of the study, descriptive-analytical method was chosen. Based on theoretical foundation of the study, there exist different methods and indices regarding the identification and classification of ruralization. This study concentrates on two dimensions including village’s functions and population and its growth during 1976-2011. It is followed by application of PROMETHEE multi indices decision making method in order to determine village’s functional status through emphasis on agricultural activities. This study further demands hierarchical clustering technique for classification of the villages. Finally, Clack ruralization indices as well as field survey were applied for determination of the village type in this regard. Furthermore, with respect to those villages which urban ruralization occurred, qualitative method of base theory that is Grounded theory was applied in order to identify the responsible factors. At first step interview with rural key official persons and with those with long history of residency (31) was implemented in order to find the casual conditions pertaining to formation and expansion of urban ruralization phenomena. In the second step, taking into account the methodology of the base theory, open coding was done. Regarding this step those relevant raw data were both labeled and conceptualized. Following, the second and third steps sub-classes are divided into broad concepts and those were divided into nodal concepts.

This study concludes that based on application of base theory in 8 villages, many factors including life desirability comparing with place of birth and adjacent settlements, lack of special costs, inexpensive business, lack of cultural barriers, variation in job opportunities, existence of different rents, economic and political structures are among some of the influential factors regarding urban-ruralization phenomena. It is furtherargued that income and saving level, the nature of center-periphery theory, capital accumulation system, discrimination with respect to poverty issue, imbalanced distribution of power, wealth, income and access to job opportunities are other determinant factors as well. Incapacity with respect to attraction of external capitals for creation of job opportunities, shortage of complementary jobs to combat seasoned unemployment, lack of potential for absorbing educated and well equipped social capital, lack of technical and vocational training related to appropriate agricultural technology, shortages of ample suitable agricultural lands and lack of knowledge of environmental conservation are among other responsible variables in this regard. Moreover, lack of appropriate and efficient agricultural market systems as well as cooperation’s and ware houses, need for government and other institutions supports, incapability in formation of industrial clusters, lack of tendency regarding economic background good for villages, management, the formation of two different construction types, land price and its relevant speculation, property rent, lack of effective control upon rural physical development, economic household participation and lack of social responsibility and self-reliance and easy accessibility to Tehran metropolitan all are responsible regarding degree of ruralization of Roobat Karim.

Stagnation with regard to rural traditional economic activities based on natural resources including agriculture and mining during last decades demand new strategies regarding strength and variations in economic activities and bases. However, concentration upon one type of economic activity of Iran’s rural settlements may waste energy and production resources as well as out migration. It is argued that instability in the country’s villages is resulted from lack of variations in economic activities associated in rural settlements. This study aims to create variation in economic activities and achievement of economic sustainability in rural settlements of Khoramdareh in Zanjan.

This study has applied nature. However, methodologically speaking is descriptiveanalytical. 28 measures were chosen in order to access the economic sustainability of rural settlements. Statistical society is composed of 1143 households out of which 287 were selected from 4 villages that are Rahmatabad, Baghdareh, Alvand and Sukahriz out of 17 villages. Cronbach’s alpha was applied for viability of the research. It turns out to be 0.765. VIKOR model was used for the analysis purpose.

This study suggests that those villages that possess job variation rank higher in terms of sustainability. According to classification of the villages based on number of jobs, Sukahriz with 32 jobs falls into the highest class with 2396 population. It follows by Rahmatabad with 22 jobs and 889 persons which fall into medium group. Alvand and Baghdareh with 14 and 11 jobs and 362 and 850 persons respectively fall into the lowest category. Based on application of VIKOR model regarding the assessment of studied villages from economic sustainability stand point, Sukahriz with 0.025 within range of 0.325 - 0.000 possesses higher sustainability.

Nowadays, management and economy as science as well as entrepreneurship receive special attention. Strengthening entrepreneurship and creation of an appropriate setting for its development are being considered as a good tool for economic improvement namely in developing countries. Based on entrepreneurship world statement, there exist a high relationship between national economic growth and organizational and national entrepreneurship level. Generally speaking, entrepreneurs potentially exist in any country. However, one should put extra effort to increase their capabilities. Moreover, the existing structures should pave the way for proving themselves. As a matter of fact, entrepreneurs play a vital role regarding social and economic development and transformation. They act as a prime element for revitalization as well as continuation of development. That is why many governments in both developed and developing countries try to guide and encourage entrepreneurs and provide them relevant education .Iran experienced high rural-urban migration as a result of rural backwardness. This is associated with ghettoes, down grading of quality of life, low job opportunities, increase in crime and delinquency. The major objective of rural plan is the achievement of rural development. This in turn will lead to reduction of unemployment increase in job opportunities. These two phenomena are the resultant of Imbalanced labor force, demand and supply as well as decrease in agricultural growth sector in rural areas and decline in job opportunities (23.4%). It is argued that agricultural development by itself cannot guarantee rural economic development and irradiate poverty. Thus attention to other sectors is strongly suggested. Despite, the importance of entrepreneurial ship and its impact upon global economy, Iran has not paid an appropriate attention in this regard. High degree of youth population, lack of job opportunities, high unemployment rate demand more attention to this phenomenon. As such this paper predominantly aims to access entrepreneurship status in southern Astarabad in Gorgan.

This study possesses descriptive- analytical nature. It is farther based on survey technique and questionnaire. As such 10 experts in the area were asked to give their opinions in order to weigh the relevant chosen criteria. Study area is composed of 16 villages which house 4805 households. Cochran formula was applied in order to determine the appropriate sample size with the significant level of 95%. Sample size turned out to be 356 which extracted via random sampling technique taking into consideration the number of households in every individual village. This study further followed by application of hierarchical weighing fuller triangle technique regarding the viewpoints of the experts. At the end, it demands ORESTE model in order to rank the villages.

This study suggests that entrepreneurship not only cause better utilization of the existing resources, but also paves the way for rural settlements sustainability. This is because entrepreneurship through providing job opportunities and resultant sufficient incomes make the settlers to remain in their village. It further could attract investment and draw outside labor force to the area. This in turn will strengthen the foundations of national regional development. However, all of the villages do not possess the same potential in terms of entrepreneurship. As such this study try to prioritize villages located in southern Astarabad in Gorgan from entrepreneurship aspect. According to experts view points, accessibility to education and training, consulting, experiences, knowledge and skill are being considered as main yardsticks in this regard. However, access to capital without needed education and training could not lead to entrepreneurship. According to ORESTE technique computation Naziabad, Sarnabad, and Maryamabad, based on the above mentioned criteria possess the highest ranks as opposed to lower shahkoh, Siyashlou and Qazagh-mahale. This study suggests education and training regarding entrepreneurship specifically in the area of tourism. It believes that lack of capital is being considered as a major obstacle in the study area. Providing low interest loans to rural settlers which could give them initial capital and motivation with respect to entrepreneurship is highly recommended.

Introduction
In economy structure of rural districts in different countries, agriculture is considered as the main source of livelihood. The most important characteristic of this structure is lack of diversification for economic contexts and job opportunities, especially for the increasing number of people in the villages which is almost the result of attitude toward the village and government policies and internal factors in the village. The consequences that are the results of dependency of the users to the environment out of the village and external markets, obvious and unobvious unemployment, decrease in return of investment, destruction of basic natural resources, rural economy vulnerability, and instability of income sources include weakening economy and culture of the village, rural migration and marginalization. The country's villages have a weak economy and they are vulnerable because of their severe dependency on agriculture and its income and lack of employment sources and non-farm income sources. Agriculture section is not capable of increasing the level of income because of limitation of land areas which cannot be increased. Therefore, it seems necessary to search for another income source regarding the capabilities and limitation of each region of the country for rural economy diversification in order to increase the population stability in the villages. Upper Ashkevar rural district is located in a mountain region and therefore it has limitation in land area, it has agriculture -based livelihood, a limited capacity for employing workforce and no diversification. Because of population growth and increase of the number of young workforce, unemployment rate is growing every day and it seems to be extremely important to find alternative strategies for villagers' employment and income earning in this region focusing on population stability and saving the remained population. Therefore, diversification approach for rural economic activities as a useful strategy is one of the most important strategies which is presented for reducing the negative impacts of unsustainability in different environmental, economic and social aspects on rural contexts and in accordance with sustainable development pattern which is confirmed by most of international organizations including Global Bank and by most of theorists. High vulnerability of agriculture activities in the region has increased the necessity of diversification in agriculture activities. This study aims to answer the following question: "What are the most important limitations in diversification of rural economic activities in Upper Ashkevar"?
Methodology
This survey is a practical one, regarding its aim and it is done by descriptive-analytic method. The population includes villages of Ashkurat district in Rudsar which is determined according to field studies in the region and exploratory studies. For assessment of studied variables, we used survey methods and documentary research methods to obtain the information needed. In documentary part, we collected data by reviewing the literature and theories and in quantitative part we analyzed data which were collected through field study and also by the information provided from some organizations. The study population includes villages of Upper Ashkevar rural district (53 villages) in Rudsar County. To determine the number of households, we used Cochran Formula and according to that, samples are 285 households. Alfa Cronbach coefficient is calculated 0.786. To analysis the impacts of infrastructural and basic variables, natural factors and social factors which are effective on the lack of diversification in rural economy activities, we used step by step multi regression analysis method. The studied region is located in Rahimabad district in Rudsar County, north of Iran. Its elevation is 1500 to 2000 meter above sea level. Its population has decreased from 2478 people in 2006 to 1619 people in 2011. Agriculture is the basic occupation for the villagers in this region. Environmental limitation especially droughts in recent decades and climate changes in most years have threatened the agriculture production in this area.
Discussion and Conclusion
One of the most effective factors to describe the presence of increasing unemployment, low income, migration from rural districts to cities, low level of production, and inefficient use of resources is lack of diversification in economic activities in rural settlements. This issue has a fundamental role in economic instability. Rural settlements in this region are affected by many factors including unevenness of the soil surface, weather, water resources, soil and vegetation, limitation of slope, cold weather, geographical isolation and lack of infrastructures. As a result, there is a sever instability in economy and population of this region; in a way that during two censuses in 85 and 90, population of this region decreased by 30%. Increase of unemployment, poverty, income inequality and as a consequence pressure on basic resources have resulted in environmental problems including soil erosion. The obtained results show that among all the different factors which were studied, the impact of infrastructural and basic factors is more than other variables. Then, environmental factors, economic factors and social factors are effective in lack of rural economy diversification respectively. Regarding this, providing and implementing development plans for expansion and improvement of infrastructure levels such as suitable road, supporting services for production and alternant industries can be effective in rural economy diversification of the region.
 

Introduction
The interaction and mutual cooperation of rural and urban areas in developing countries is different from the developed ones. The type of relations between villages and town can affect different aspects of rural lifestyle, one of them is its effect on food security. Researches show that the range of effectiveness of such relations include property, the use of new technology, supporting relatives and acquaintances, availability of local markets, pricing policy and market access, development of off-farm income, and consequently, availability of foodstuffs, and increase of food variety and consumption that can all affect food security. Due to the increasing flow of urbanization in Zanjan County, in this research we are studying the economic rural-urban relations on food security. There are two main questions mentioned here: How is the security status of food among rural households? How can we define the economic rural-urban relations on food security?
Methodology
This is an applied study which has been done using descriptive- analytical method of research. Rural households from villages of Zanjan County contain the statistical society of the present study. In 1390, there was 97225 villagers, 26429 rural households, 13 rural districts, and 248 inhabited villages in Zanjan County. Among these, a number of 14 villages have been selected as samples using modified Cochran formula. Since it was required to select 54 out of 248 villages to study in case analysis, all the 248 villages were checked to recognize how far they are from the urban area. Then, they have classified into 5 groups. Finally, using simple random sampling, due to the frequency of each population class, 54 of them have selected randomly. Those 54 villages, contain of 11662 rural households and a population of 289547 people. Because of using the household unit as the analytical unit of the research, the required number of then for accomplishing the questionnaires has been calculated 290 households within Cochran formula. The required data has been collected by the use of library and field (for questionnaires) methods. Data have been analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U and T groups). To calculate the amount of food security two methods of food insecurity scale and standard calories have been used.
Discussion and conclusion
Findings from the study implies low food security within the studied rural households. Classifying food security within the rural households based on food insecurity scale indicates that only 31.1 percent of them are taking advantage of food security, the rest 68.9 % are struggling against food insecurity. The followings are reported according to the descriptive findings obtained due to the different times of rural household's visits to the town: 11.54 % visit the town once a week, 17.77% twice a week, 16.44% three times a week, 26.66% four times a week, and 27.59% five times a week or more. In other indicators, no significant effect has reported within the economic relations of villages and towns. Maybe it is because of the weak rural-urban relations within the studied areas. Therefore, the followings are suggested according to the new findings of the study:
- By strengthening agricultural infrastructures in the villages of high environmental potentials it will be possible to accelerate the process of agricultural development of the studied area, create appropriate conditions for money-making, and improve food security.
- Considering the impact of direct selling of agricultural products on food security, the government can make a vital role by its broad support of guaranteed purchase of agricultural products to increase food security and incomes of rural households.
- In the studied villages, the improvement of rural routes and shops can increase the access of rural households to food.
- Development of tourist-oriented activities in high potential villages can provide a good condition of rural-urban relation formation.

In our country, inappropriate physical housing in villages is the result of "bad housing" that can be inferred as one of the most important challenges in rural development. This phenomenon is the result of inappropriate resilient construction, worn-out houses, pollutions because of coexistence of animals and human, sharing the living space with working place; and these issues are caused by inappropriate economic, social and cultural characteristics that govern the rural society of the country and also they are derived from lack of attention to technical obligations, worn-out houses, lack of effective supervision, inadequate infrastructural and economic provision. Therefore, to decrease the bad housing condition in rural districts of the country, some efforts have been started through improvement and renovation of worn-out texture, retrofitting of rural buildings, provision of technical and quality regulations and obligation and issuing ownership documents together with codification of second phase of development plan that provide a good condition for socioeconomic changes in rural districts. These changes have impacts on meeting the needs of the residents and their quality of life, their livelihood changes, and rural housing functions through improvement of physical environment of the rural district. So, this study tries to answer the following questions:

This is a practical study that uses descriptive-analytical methods to determine the issue and its results according to performed field studies (questionnaire, observation and interview). Shamshir rural district is located in Paveh County in the west of Kermanshah province and all the eight villages of this rural district are evaluated in this study. According to general population and housing census (1390) the total number of households in this rural district is 2593 households. 287 households are selected as sample population by using Cochran Formula and questionnaires were distributed randomly. For data analysis different statistical method have been used such as One Sample T-Test (to compare numerical mean), Wilcoxon Test (before and after rural housing improvement) and Kruskal Wallis Test (measuring current differences in the rank of diversification to economic activities in sample villages) and Spearman Correlation Coefficient Test.

Discussion and Conclusion
The results showed that most of new housings, which were constructed by the incentives of government including its credits and supervision, have a substructure of 100 square meters. To overcome the steep slope that governs the village site and to decrease the humidity, new housings are constructed according to a two-storey building design in which the ground flood is inhospitable. Studying the impacts of rural housing improvement and renovation shows widespread differences between two periods which were before and after this process. So, these changes can be mostly considered in housing building plans and maps and extensive modelling of urban housing designs, elimination of some basic elements of old housings and also high availability of facilities and infrastructure services; the basic reasons of these changes include logging bans in forests and pastures, discontinuing traditional way of living based on livestock farming and using forests, improvement of transportation roads and turning them to highways, proximity to Paveh county, and prevalence of unofficial economy and contraband trade. According to respondents' point of view, the results show that all of the studied components have a meaningful difference in periods before and after physical improvement. The most meaningful differences are in rendering services like mechanical service, carwash service, tire mounting and balancing service (-15.002), and employment in non-agricultural activities among men (-14.883) respectively, and the least meaningful differences are reported in such components like households' needs (bread, vegetables, fruit and dairy) (-6.398) and performing economic activities inside the home by women such as handicrafts and carpet weaving (-7.228). Moreover, correlation analysis shows that there is a meaningful relation between rural housing improvement components and components of nonagricultural activities among men (0.812), designing a special place for livestock (-0.603), assigning a part of the house to rendering automobile services (mechanical, carwash, tire mounting and balancing services) (0.600) and performing economic activities inside the home by women (0.324) at a level of 99 percent. In conclusion, the result of classification of changes in economic functions of rural housings in Shamshir rural district does not show a meaningful difference among the studied villages. Therefore, according to the respondents' point of view, the most average ranks in performing the studied economic activities are as follow: non-agriculture employment among men in Shamshir village; assigning a part of the house to services in Dorisan village; performingactivities related to gardening and assigning a place for production and selling the forest's products in Bandare village; and in designing a place for livestock and performing economic activities in home by women in Tazdeh, Bandare and Dorisan villages.