Economy

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.

In recent years, increase in demand as a result of world population and industrialization lead to demand for the use of natural resources. This issue causes environmental problems and challenges. Therefore, sustainable development is considered by different researchers. Sustainable development has various dimensions such as economic, social, cultural, political and environmental ones. Regarding modern trend in sustainable development, all dimensions are considered in relation to the issue of environmental dimension of development and the environment protection and its resources issue is one of the important dimensions in sustainable development. Other developmental dimensions have direct or indirect relation to this dimension. Considering this, rural regions have high degree of dependency to these natural resources to supply their basic needs. Therefore, to achieve national development objectives, environmental sustainability in these regions is of great importance to prevent desertification, confront with dangers caused by drought, prevent soil erosion and degradation, maintain natural resources and also microclimates. However, in many villages of the country, the environment is facing severe threats such as desertification, deforestation and destruction of meadows, agricultural land-use change, groundwater decline, and landslide and so on. So, regarding to existing problems in the villages of the country and environmental challenges, the necessity and importance of the environmental status assessment in rural regions is obvious before any planning. Accordingly, this study has been done to present a pattern for assessment of rural environmental sustainability in Shervineh village.

This study is a descriptive correlational survey. All Shervineh residents took part in this study (N=840), in which 264 people were chosen randomly according to Bartlett Table as the statistical samples. For data collection, questionnaires had been used in this study. On the whole, 185 questionnaires had been collected and analyzed. The validity of questionnaire has been determined by many specialists in the fields like rural development and environmental field and the content validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alfa test has been used in which the reliability coefficient of 90% is achieved. Data analysis has been done by the use of SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.8 and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

The results of factor analysis shows that six factors (implementation of environmental plans in the village, participation of all villagers, contribution of people and local institutions and also national organization supporting the environmental issues, environmental beliefs, training necessary reactions in the case of destructive activities against environment, having prior experiences and indigenous knowledge of the rural environment) are effective in environmental sustainability assessment. Each of these factors is discussed according to their importance in environmental sustainability. Participation of all villagers is a necessary and an important factor to achieve rural environmental sustainability. In this regard, findings by Golshiri and Saraee (2010), Ahmadvand and Nooripour (2010) and Masika & Joekes (1997) showed that promoting public participation in the process of development, protection, restoration and sustainable utilization of natural and environmental resources are important to achieve a sustainable environmental development. One of the indicators in assessment of environmental sustainability is indigenousknowledge and prior experiences of rural environment which are confirmed by factor analysis. In fact, indigenous knowledge is suitable for environment management and this is because of knowledge coming out of the natural environment of the region. Another factor is environmental beliefs and values (ethics) of villagers which provides a base to development of environmental sustainability. In this regard, findings by Menatizadeh and Zamani (2012), and Ogunkan (2010) showed that ethical norms are the factors which have the most impressions on the formation process of environmental sustainability attitude. Contribution of groups, local institutions and national organizations supporting environmental issues is a factor which provides a base to environmental sustainability. This findings are confirmed by Hosseini (2002) and Sadough Vanini et al (2008) studies. According to these researchers' findings, to achieve environmental sustainability, local institution's activities are needed. Factor analysis results showed that implementation of environmental plans in the village is necessary for the environmental sustainability assessment. Various studies (Mozafar et.al (2008); Safaeeyan et.al (2002); Motiee Langeroudi and Yari (2010)) showed that implementation of development plans caused negative environmental impacts. This is the case, because the codification and implementation of these plans should be the result of studies by various specialists meanwhile plan makers and plan executors act according to available information and superficial observations. One of the indicators in environmental sustainability assessment is holding educational workshops to disscuss consequences of destructive activities against environment. In this case, we should know that one of the best strategies to overcome environmental challenges is training and educating human force with desired environmental attitude and corresponded to sustainability. In this field, Lichtenberg & Zimmerman (1999) and Abbaspour et.al (2003) believed that getting knowledge and information from different sources is effective on environmental behavior.

It is difficult to measure sustainable agriculture as a multidimensional concept. While it is relatively easy to express philosophical definitions of agriculture sustainability, providing an operational and methodology definition for evaluating the level of sustainability is difficult. Different methodological approaches have been formulated and developed to assess the sustainability levels of sustainable agriculture. However, there is no consensus on a comprehensive framework for identifying and selecting indicators, different scales of indicators, weighting and especially for aggregating individual indicators into a final composite indicator and rating of sustainability level. So, Evaluation of sustainable agriculture is an important challenge for agriculture researchers, agents, and policymakers. A comprehensive approach for stability analysis is the complexity of each other-need activities. That's why we need a comprehensive analytical framework for evaluating sustainable agriculture development and use. This study presents a certain methodological approach to evaluate and determine the sustainability of agricultural production at farm-scale which integrates all the individual indicators of ecological, economic and social stability into a comprehensive final index. In a case study, in order to test the proposed methodology, 22 individual indicators were selected. Then, a local condition of rice cultivation in Sari County was studied through an open review of 287 rice farmers.

Agricultural sustainability can be evaluated at different spatial scales including field, regional, national and even international measures. However, due to the specific conditions of each region, its natural environment, socio-economic conditions and agricultural techniques, necessity of a transparent scale is unavoidable. Most national indicators are not applicable at the scale of individual farms which are the purpose of the intended operations. In this study, 22 single index fields were selected to demonstrate and test the proposed methodology in a specific case study. Then, its relevance to the local conditions of rice cultivation in Sari County was studied by examining 287 rice farmers. Considering relative importance and impact of social, economic and ecological factors on the total sustainability, a methodology of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied by exploring the views of experts to determine the weight. Finally, the final composite indicator of sustainability was created through the integration of the three components of sustainability. A questionnaire was designed to collect data for the current farming operations. It consisted of three parts, namely: a) agricultural land management practices; b) economic performance and c) social characteristics of each farm. The questionnaire was designed in such a way to be completed in the shortest possible time. Thus, it was consisted of useful sections for measuring and providing information related to the entire system of agricultural production.

Discussion and conclusion
The results of this study indicate that 17.77% and 53.66% of rice production system is unstable and potentially unstable. While the sustainability level of social component was standing in a satisfactory situation, the sustainability level of economic and ecological components was still changing. In addition, farm sustainability was higher for those farmers using the method of biological control, low-product seed, agro-ecological management practices, owners of integrated land and participants in training and extension courses. The level of education, family labor, and the amount of self-consumption of rice are factors of positive and direct relations with ecological sustainability. On the other hand, the amount of rice production causes significant negative effects on it. Age, farming experience, level of education and the amount of self-consumption show a positive significant relation with social sustainability. In addition, education, land size, selfconsumption, the amount of produced rice and productivity index are in a significant positive relation with economic sustainability. In general, factors including education, extension communication, attending training courses and the information source of consumption play a key role in the increasing of farmers' awareness. In this study, to evaluate and compare the sustainability of agricultural production system in farm scale, a methodology framework has been provided by the combination of three components of sustainability, i.e. economic, social and environmental. However, it cannot be claimed that the proposed methodology is quite authentic to evaluate the complicated phenomenon of sustainability. Different facilitating assumptions are required for the use of this methodology. Of course, it has several advantages and also can be used for different purposes. Thus, the following hints are noteworthy in the methodology section:
- Variables and indicators of sustainability should be selected according to the specific circumstances and context of each area and the topic at hand, as well.
- Validation and preliminary test of indicators is ensuring their appropriateness and being measurable in the current conditions of any region.
- Weight allocation model based on the views of experts and AHP, can obviously show the importance of individual indicators in the final integrated one.
- The integration of the three components of sustainability into the final one should be due to the relative weight of the components.
- In the process of making indicators, positive and negative effects of indicators on the overall sustainability must be considered.

Lack of a comprehensive framework is one of the most important challenges in sustainability assessment of Agricultural Exploitation Systems. This is the reason of tunnel vision in many researches in the field of sustainability. The history of Agricultural Exploitation Systems in Iran is back to thousands years ago, when ancient Iranian tried to domesticate wild animals and cereals in Iran. So, Agricultural Exploitation Systems are one of the fundamental issues in Iran’s agriculture section and these systems are of great importance in agricultural development of the country and even in urban development. Studies show that since very beginning, governments focused their attention on this system because of its potentials and capabilities such as production, job creation, and generating income and this caused major changes and development. According to the performed studies, there are different frameworks for sustainability assessment of Agricultural Exploitation Systems. Most of these frameworks consider the sustainability issue not holistically and try to investigate the sustainability issue just in economic, social and environmental dimensions. In these frameworks, some dimensions of sustainability are highlighted, while highlighting some dimensions is in contradiction to holistic view in sustainability assessment. Therefore, this study aims to introduce those

By using a critical method, this qualitative and quantitative study tries to introduce a comprehensive framework to assess sustainability of Agricultural Exploitation Systems; By using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, this study gives weight to the existing criteria and sub-criterion in the recognized framework. To do so, two criteria were used for selecting the experts: First, recognized people have experiences in field studies in the case of Agricultural Exploitation Systems; they also have some documentary researches such as article, book an research projects. In this stage, different methods of sampling have been used including criterion-based sampling, snowball sampling and opportunistic sampling. Following that, participants were asked to perform pairwise comparisons in criteria and sub-criterion level; and to calculate fuzzy numbers in FAHP, Kong & Liu method has been used.

Discussion and Conclusion
Among four criteria that are effective in sustainability of Agricultural Exploitation Systems, management, capitals, vulnerability and tensions are the most important ones respectively. Based on experts’ comments, management issue is the most important criteria among all other criteria. In fact, management is a determinant factor in providing or not providing sustainability in the system; So, this is one of the most important issues is sustainability assessment of Agricultural Exploitation Systems that needs more consideration. Fuzzy comparison matrix and deriving weights of these criteria showed that social capacity as a sub-criterion in deriving weights is the most importance criteria. Capital is the second effective criteria in assessment of agricultural farming sustainability and it is rarely mentioned in other presented frameworks. Fuzzy ranking of various capitals showed that human capital is weighted as the most important capital. This finding confirms that development tools are not located in mountains, plains an under the ground but they must be investigated inside the human brain. Performing fuzzy comparisons in the case of tension as a sub-criterion showed that productivity is the most important criteria in determining Agricultural Exploitation Systems. Other sub-criterion are stability, compatibility, flexibility and reliability respectively. Deriving weights of subcriterion in the case of vulnerability showed that vulnerability in economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities are the most important criteria for sustainability assessmentof Agricultural Exploitation Systems. According to the obtained results, it is recommended to use the proposed framework and the derived weights as the standards for sustainability assessment of Agricultural Exploitation Systems.

One of the necessary principles of rural development is its management. A special approach of development is needed to be planned for every particular area. On the other hand, it is not useful to apply an integrated approach of development by new managing systems. At this point we can clearly understand the important role of institutions and organizations related to the structuralfunctional development of villages. These institutions and organizations have critical roles in different economic, social, cultural, and eco-environmental aspects of a society. Those tasks defined for some of these institutions and organizations are a combination of different aspects or a single task oriented which can affect rural planning and its development. Management aspects of institutions and organizations related to rural development are among the most important factors here. Although, compared to previous years, considerable changes have occurred in rural management systems but they couldn’t cause rural sustainability. In this regard, structuralfunctioning performance of organizations and institutions related to the current status of villages was highly decisive. So, regarding rural position with the great impact of its development on local national progress, it seems necessary to investigate the performance of the institutions and organizations in different economic, social, cultural, eco-environmental, and structural aspects of villages. This research aims at evaluating the performance of institutions and organizations related to rural sustainability to find ways to the regional development of Dehdez district in the County of Izeh.

This is an applied research conducted by descriptive-analytical approach. Required data was collected through document-library and field studies. Data required for field studies were collected through questionnaires. Among all the residential villages of the area which are over 101, a number of 30 villages (25% of all villages) have been randomly selected as questioning samples. Based on Cochran formula 315 households were selected as statistical samples. Sample population has been distributed among 30 villages using the ratio method proportional to population. Finally, data have been collected and analyzed in SPSS and AMOS software. One- sample t test and correlation analysis methods were used in inferential statistics.

Discussion and conclusion
Regional and integrated developments are the consequences of good programming of acceptable performances of rural institutions and organizations. People believe that, compared to the past 30 years, these institutions and organizations have been acted successfully in terms of economic, social, structural, and eco-environmental aspects. Additionally, they have caused positive changes in programming and fighting against poverty. The most remarkable thing in terms of changes happened is the matter of time requirements and factors affecting this field of study. In other words, in every period of time the existing factors and facilities have influenced on the performance of related organizations and institutions. Another important point is that in spite of spatial inequalities in the provision of services and facilities to the rural areas, relative satisfaction with the performance of such institution and organizations is still visible.
Although the performance of these organizations has been acceptable in four different aspects, their weaknesses cannot be ignored. In fact, if these organizations could make changes in rural development, they couldn’t cause rural sustainability and unsustainability is still continuing there. It can be said that even after the establishment and extra interfering of institutions in rural management, not only have not these human settlements become sustainable, but also several economic, social, and eco-environmental changes have been imposed on them.
Therefore, in spite of the fact that this research is intending to show the effectiveness of rural institutions on the improvement of rural position, it should be mentioned that it is a moderate impact appropriate to the time requirements which is mostly concentrated on services with no effective impact on rural sustainability. So, integrated objectives and systemic perspectives should be taken by managers and programmers and decision making should be done within the same framework. According to the results from the study, in line with the improvement of organizational and institutional performances in the studied area and other generalized regions, a few suggestions are presented:
1. Organizational and institutional emphasis on an integrated systematic rural development and sustainability by paying more attention to all the variables mentioned in the study.
2. More emphasis of related authorities and institutions on economic development of rural areas considering results from the study that shows some deficiencies in terms of income, employment, variety of activities, and ….
3. According to the better functions of rural institutions and organizations in social dimension of villages and the inseparable connection of economic and social dimensions, the existing capacity of social variables should be used for the improvement and promotion of economic sector.
4. Based on the results from the study it can be implied that the lack of suitable institutional interaction in different dimensions of rural development is one of the deficiencies and weaknesses in terms of rural sustainability. On the other hand, each institution and organization is trying for its own goals and it cannot lead to the comprehensive and sustainable rural development. So, it is suggested to increase this type of interactions and try to establish a new organization responsible for rural development.

 Introduction
Increasing dependence on official knowledge of imported technologies and lack of attention to local knowledge and skills have caused a lack of success in improving the situation of rural society and the failure of development programs in villages. Looking at rural development and adopted strategies shows that a systematic and integrated approach must be included in most views and methods. Therefore, in this regard, we are taking a step in the direction of economic development by taking into account the spatial and temporal conditions of the village, using local knowledge to increase agricultural productivity, provide basic needs, protect natural areas, increase the population in the village to achieve the process of economic stability. In this regard, achieving economic sustainability requires a change of perspective and attitude toward indigenous knowledge and giving importance to it because the knowledge that villagers have acquired through practical experience of agriculture, animal husbandry, etc., is qualitatively different from the knowledge obtained from the official tests of researchers and experts. Being local is considered a basis for a scientific, efficient and successful foundation in achieving economic stability. Farmahin Farahan region has emerged from the union of two villages, Farmahin and Shahabadi, where most of the population is farmers and herders. Therefore, this region has a good background in using local knowledge in agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, etc. However, the mentioned process has decreased in recent years with the replacement of new knowledge and related technologies. In this regard, the current research seeks to find out whether indigenous knowledge is effective in the economic sustainability of Farmahin Farahan. This paper, with the approach of economic sustainability, based on the development of local knowledge, has tried to study the visible and hidden layers of local knowledge in the Farmahin rural area and acknowledge that if we distance ourselves from the traditional rural knowledge and approach and use new ways of decision-making and planning methods, Farmahin Farahan region will move towards economic instability.

 Methodology
The current research, in terms of its purpose, is applied and has an analytical nature, and in terms of its method, it is in the quantitative research group. SPSS software and integrated models (FKOPRAS+FSORA) were used for data analysis. The statistical population of the research includes two groups (rural residents and knowledgeable and informed people), which was determined based on a random sampling of 200 people (village residents of Farmahin), and also based on a targeted sampling of 20 people. First, the knowledgeable and informed (village council members and rural mayors) were determined.

Discussion and conclusion
The results showed that among the components of indigenous knowledge, only the components of capabilities and people's knowledge, with an average value of 3.38 and 3.01, with an average value higher than the average number (3), are favorable for evaluation. In other components, including participation with an average value of 1.58, life promotion with an average value of 2.45, monitoring with an average value of 2.62, social with an average value of 2.02, economic with an average value of 2.16, low It is more than the average number (3). As a result, these components are not in a favorable condition. Also, the results showed that the level of economic stability in Farmahin with the average value obtained (lower than the average number of 3), with a significance level of 0.000, has been evaluated as low and unfavorable, in this regard, despite the average lower than average levels in the components of local knowledge and sustainability, this local knowledge has had a significant impact on the economic stability of the rural area of ​​Farmahin, which, if strengthened and motivated to utilize and combine it with modern knowledge, can to have a greater impact on the economic development of the region, So that according to the obtained results, the contribution of the participation component in predicting positive changes of the economic stability variable was higher than other local knowledge components, and also the people's knowledge component has the most direct effects on the economic stability of this region. Also, the results showed that, among the economic indicators, employment and income, with a score of 70.14, have the highest impact on indigenous knowledge in Farmahin. Finally, the results of the research are in agreement with the studies of Alayei and Karimian (2013), that in rural development with emphasis on local knowledge, the role and place of participation of villagers have not been considered, and with the study of Bazarafshan et al. (2015). It is consistent with the fact that there is a meaningful relationship between indigenous knowledge and sustainable economic development. However, it does not agree with the study of Sadeghlou and Azizi Demirchilo (2014), stating that indigenous knowledge has little effect on the components of economic development.
 

Introduction
The declining trend of the rural economy, the spread of poverty, and unemployment show that, in practice, the vital development goals in rural areas have failed. The sustainability of the rural economy is a vital corridor to achieving national economic sustainability. Economic sustainability in rural areas means strengthening the foundations of the rural economy to economic security in terms of access to sustainable livelihoods, economic stability, beneficial employment, reliable financial resources and environmentally friendly technology using human resources. Today, it is necessary to pay attention to economic sustainability, considering the challenges facing developing countries. In the current situation, attention to economic sustainability becomes more necessary, given the challenges and bottlenecks that settlements face.
On the other hand, discovering, understanding, and recognizing spatial patterns leads to a better understanding of phenomena and their relationships, actions, and interactions at the space level. The analysis of the elements of geographical space facilitates the mutual understanding of the phenomena and helps to simplify and create order in a vague and complex reality. Based on objective facts, rural settlements in Langaroud County need better economic stability. This issue is evident in cases such as high unemployment, poverty, low agricultural production, etc. Accordingly, the sustainable development of the rural economy is considered a goal to solve the problems and issues of rural areas in the study area. Therefore, this study seeks to answer two questions: First, what spatial pattern does the economic sustainability of rural settlements in Langroud County follow? And second, what is the relationship between the geographical location of rural areas and their level of economic stability?

 Methodology
In terms of purpose, research is part of applied-developmental research. It is also descriptive-analytical in terms of analysis method. Research information was collected through field study and the use of the village questionnaire, and library-documentary studies. SPSS, GIS and Excel software have also been used to analyze the data. The study's statistical population is the Rural managers of more than 20 households in the city of Langroud, with 110 Rural managers in 7 villages, which has been done in total.

Discussion and conclusion
According to the research findings, in connection with the first purpose of the research (identifying the spatial pattern of economic sustainability of rural settlements in the study city), it was found that the spatial pattern of economic sustainability and its components (justice, stability, welfare), According to the results obtained from the general statistics of G, the statistics of general Moran and also the statistics of G, is random and one of the most important reasons is the randomness of the spatial pattern of the villages of the city, while in the research (2016) ), The spatial model of economic stability has been clustered; In his research, the spatial pattern of the villages was scattered, but the studied features formed a cluster, but in the present study, the spatial pattern of the villages was random, and the studied features were also random. The giver is that the studied villages have not been affected as much as possible by the surrounding villages. Concerning the second goal, namely the difference in geographical location and the level of economic stability of villages, studies have shown that sustainable villages are located in the plains of the city and as the natural and elevation position of villages goes to the foothills, Their economic stability is also reduced due to the recreational conditions of the mountain villages and the lack of easy access to the city, their dispersion, and the low population of these areas. Therefore, the research hypothesis related to the second question is confirmed that there is a difference between the natural and geographical location of villages and their level of economic stability. These results are consistent with the results of the research of Ghadiri Masoom et al. (2010), who concluded that the villages with the highest level of economic stability are located in the plains, like the current study that economically sustainable villages. There are villages located in the plains with large populations that are more extensive, have a natural location and good communication, and the level of job diversity is relatively higher in them.
According to the obtained results, it can be said that, in general, economic stability in the villages of Langroud county is at a weak level. The natural and communication situation of the villages is one of the most important factors that affect their level of economic stability; As the natural position of the villages moves towards the foothills, the level of economic stability decreases compared to other villages located in the plains. The results indicate that among the villages of Langroud county, the distribution of coefficients of economic stability components has been considerable. In other words, in each of the components of economic stability, several specific villages have the highest level of stability. Furthermore, economic stability in components has not occurred between common villages except in very few cases. In this regard, it can be acknowledged that despite some criteria as good economic stability. Other criteria, such as income level, job opportunities, and investments, are low. There were villages that, for example. The level of economic justice is high, and the level of economic stability is low. Therefore, the economic stability of villages has three components and various indicators that achieving the most desirable state requires the alignment and integration of all components and criteria of economic sustainability. Therefore, with a one-dimensional view of this process, we can not expect the desired results. However, it requires a comprehensive view and attention to all economic sustainability components in Langroud county's villages.