Rural Development Factors with an Emphasis on the Role of Cooperatives in Guilan Province, Iran

Rural development is a process involving local people in solving their problems. As a strategy designed to improve the social and economic well-being of rural populations, rural developmentundoubtedlysupportsnation-widedevelopmentina country like Iran with a rural-basedsociety. Theconstitutionof the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that ­rural development should be viewed as a key function of the government. This paper aimsto determine factors that constitute rural development in GuilanProvince(North of Iran). The presentstudyexamined75 rural development indices derived from official documents.Theywerethenstandardized and classified according to six factorsusing the numerical taxonomy approach:humanresources, infrastructure costs, socio-cultural costs, economic performance, location and natural resources, and rural management. Share of each factor was rated by statistical analysis. The results of the analysis showed a negligible change in rural management and economic costs,whileother factors remained constant and no change was made to the impact status and rank of the six factors germane torural development. The studies recommendsrevisingthe economic structure and rural management of the province based on cooperatives.