چكيده لاتين :
Nowadays, rural sustainability is one of the main issues of sustainable development
programs in developing countries such as Iran. Of course not only it is useful to
know rural sustainability criteria, but it is also more important to evaluate and
prioritize them. Thus, based on a holistic view, this study carried out to categorize
rural sustainability criteria more detailed than existent literature and then to
prioritize the supposed criteria using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).
Methodology
The process of any development project is a communication process, because during
this process, some development agents transfer different programs/technologies to
customers via some communication channels. Today, the efficiency of such one way
communication model is on question, so other alternative two way and interactive
models are introduced. However the sub systems of new communication models are
*Responsible Author: mnooripoor@ymail.com
Rural Research Quarterly Spring 2011
different from each other and also from past models, but three major subsystems are
common between all of them. These subsystems are Production, Transfer and
Implementation of new technologies. Also, with regard to communicative nature of
development projects, it is necessary to introduce a comprehensive communication
model to identify major components or sub systems of communication process. A
lot of specialists have introduced communication theories and models. In this study,
rural sustainability attributes were considered based on the basic Rogers and
Shoemakerʹs communication model including "source", "message", "channel",
"receiver" and "feedback. According to this view, sustainability elements included:
Development organizations as sources, Sustainable programs (socio-cultural,
economic-technical, and environmental) as messages, Communication media as
channels, Customers (farmers) as receivers and Monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
of development programs as feedback subsystems. Therefore, a rural development
as a communication process will be more sustainable if there is more: organizational
sustainability, sustainable programs, and effective communication channels, focus
on real costumers, and appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system.
Sustainability criteria (attributes) for each one of the above elements (aspects) were
determined in 2 stages. In stage 1, attributes were obtained from literature review
and analytic research. The results of the primary (analytic) study showed that
attribute such as decentralization, investment on sustainable activities, more
attention to rural youth and women via getting their participation or investment on
their special businesses; using two- way interactive methods of training;
biodiversity, minimizing the consumption of un- renewable energy sources,
minimizing using pastures and natural resources, decreasing soil erosion; increasing
the rate of active population, decreasing the rate of rural- urban migration, income
improvement, health, nutrition, housing, employment, availability of recreational
opportunities are some main sustainability attributes in different aspects. In stage 2,
Rural Research Quarterly Spring 2011
a survey method was used in Dena Township of the K&B province to determine the
most problematic criteria for study area. For this purpose, a questionnaire including
attributes obtained from the first stage was designed with close-ended statements
and Likert-type scale answers. The face validity of questionnaire was verified by
five subject matter specialists.
Findings
A pilot study with 30 samples out of research sample was conducted. The reliability
coefficient between 0.72 - 0.86 was calculated using Cronbachʹs Alpha reliability
coefficient. Using stratified random sampling, 250 farmers were selected for this
stage of the study. The respondents were asked to assess problematic rural
sustainability attributes in the region. Based on the mean score and variance, rural
sustainability attributes were prioritized for the region. Finally, AHP was used to
identify ultimate priority of the selected criteria. The first stage of AHP is the
development of decision tree. Decision tree is a structure that shows the relations
between ultimate goal and level(s) of attributes. The second stage is Pair- wise
comparison of attributes. Decision maker(s) judge(s) about the relative importance
of attributes with respect to ultimate goal. They compare and weigh attributes using
a bipolar scale from 1 to 9. AHP can be used either to prioritize alternatives and to
select optimum one, or to prioritize criteria (attributes). Of course, no alternatives
were considered in this study, because the aim of the study was to prioritize just
criteria (attributes). The results of AHP showed that "reducing corruption" and
"central monitoring" are the main criteria of organizational sustainability, also
"youth employment increase" should be considered as the main social sustainability
criteria. About environmental sustainability, "proper time of spraying" and
"integrated management of plantsʹ pests and diseases" are more important. Analysis
of the results also showed that other rural sustainability aspects i.e. using proper
Rural Research Quarterly Spring 2011
communication media, selecting real customers and effective evaluation- feedback
system are generally poor in the study area and should also be considered seriously
in rural sustainability programs.
Conclusion
Based on the above mentioned results, it seems that a real refocusing of the
programs such as research and extension activities should be followed in the study
area especially in the context of the rural sustainability aspects and criteria. More
detailed results are presented in the body of the paper.
