Investigating the role of social capital in the participation of farmers in the implementation of rural development projects (Case Study: Kolijan Rostaq District Famers in Sari City)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social capital in farmers Participation in the implementation of rural development projects among farmers living in Kolijan Rostaq district in Sari city. The statistical population consists of 4000 farmers living in Kolijan Rostaq district in Sari city. Based on the standard Jessi and Morgan sampling table, 351 individuals were selected as samples and cluster method was used to provide access to the selected samples. Required data was collected through a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the experts and the reliability was obtained through Cronbach s alpha 0/812 for the social capital questionnaire and 0/79 for the social partnership questionnaire. In order to test the hypothesis of the research, with regard to the normality of the data, Pearson tests and multiple regression were used. The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between social capital and its dimensions (social trust, social cohesion, social relations) with farmers participation in the implementation of rural development projects; i.e. those who participated in the implementation of rural development projects were more socially viable than those who did not participate. Also, based on the results of multivariate regression, social trust had the most impact on farmers participation in implementing rural development projects.