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Access to food is one of the most important components of food security, which plays an important role in food security. Access to food has three main components including physical, economics and stability. The present study investigated the access of rural households to food in Shavoor village. The statistical population of the study consisted of all rural households in this district (N = 2624). The sample size of 300 households was determined based on stratified sampling method with proportional assignment. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. To measure access to food, based on the UN MPI, a standard index was developed whose value was between zero and one. This method was a methodological innovation of the study. Findings showed that about 23% of rural households have a good access to food. Among three main components, economic ans stability access have had the more contribution in access to food index. Disability to food supply resources and centers, lack of self-production and severe fluctuations in food prices are the most important causes for reducing the rural households access to food. Accordingly, it was suggested that improvement of ICT infrastructures will provide better condition to access of rural community to food. Promoting a culture of self-production and saving is another suggestion to improve the resilience of rural households to food price fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural Research is the property of Negah Institute for Social Research & Scientific Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rural development is one of the main concerns of developing countries. The consequences of lack of development in rural areas such as widespread poverty, unemployment and migration have led to more attention to rural development. According to the latest report of the Statistics Center of Afghanistan (2020), out of the total population of this country, about 23.4 million people (71%), live in rural areas. At the same time, rural areas face various economic, social, cultural, managerial and environmental challenges. Therefore, identifying Afghanistan's rural development challenges is a prerequisite to developing policies, plans, and providing a flexible model for achieving sustainable rural development. In this regard, the main purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the major challenges of rural development in Afghanistan. The statistical population included 60 experts on agricultural and rural development. The data collection tool was a questionnaire and its method was face-to-face interview. For data analysis, coefficient of variation and confirmatory factor analysis were used. The results of this study showed that several challenges including economic (such as lack of credits and investments in rural areas), social (such as women's low participation in rural activities), environmental (such as improper exploitation of groundwater), physical (such as the weakness or lack of rural-urban network), and managerial (especially the dominance of unskilled laborers in rural economic activities) challenges, have influenced rural development in Afghanistan, respectively. Undoubtedly, any effort to eliminate them will play a significant role in achieving sustainable rural and consequently national development of this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is still one of the main challenges facing humankind with a more rural nature in developing countries. The importance of addressing the issue of poverty and deprivation is to the extent that the United Nations considers its reduction as the first goal of Sustainable Development Goals. The approach of researchers and politicians to poverty has now shifted from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional. This means that poverty is no longer seen as a purely economic issue, instead, various dimensions including education, health, and welfare are now considered for poverty. Accordingly, recognition of poverty and coping with it requires a holistic and systematic understanding of it. The current study has attempted to go beyond the household level and study poverty (at county, province and country levels) by utilizing the concept of MPI while localizing its various indices with the aim of assisting policy-making and planning to reduce poverty. In this regard, the 2016 census data of 20000 rural households were used. According to the findings of this study, the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of Iran is 0.349. Education, health, and living standards (welfare) had the highest contribution in MPI, respectively. The intensity and incidence of poverty among rural households are 0.558 and 0.628, respectively. Poverty in Iran is affected not only by economic and social factors but also by spatial and climatic factors. Consequently, given the extent and complexity of the relationships among the factors affecting and being affected by poverty, any planning and policymaking to alleviate poverty requires an intelligent holistic and systematic approach to poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics & Development Research (IJAEDR) is the property of University of Tehran and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Land-use suitability is the ability of a given type of land to support a defined use. Analysis of land-use suitability requires the consideration of a variety of criteria, not only the natural/physical capacity of a land unit, but also its socioeconomic and environmental impact implications. As land suitability is assessed within a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, it is formulated as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. The study was conducted in the Sangab Plain in northeast Iran. We investigated the study area's suitability for grassland and agricultural uses. A hybrid method of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and GIS methodology was applied to evaluate land suitability based on a set of criteria and sub-criteria. Results showed that 20% of the study area had high (rich), 65% had medium (fair), and 15% had low (poor) suitability for agriculture. In terms of grassland use, the comparable amounts were, respectively, about 7%, 23%, and 70%. The lands of the Sangab Plain have medium potential for agricultural use and low potential for grassland use. This paper used both qualitative and quantitative techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is an irrefutable part of food policy. This paper aims to introduce an integrated method using MICMAC and AHP techniques to deal with understanding the key strategic variables of agricultural system. MICMAC was used to determine the classifications of variables and AHP was applied to weigh these classifications. MICMAC is a structural analysis tool used to structure ideas and AHP is an effective tool to deal with complex decision making and helps decision-makers making the best decision. The results show that strategic variables had different types of influence and direct, indirect, and potential dependencies did not have the same importance. AHP-MICMAC not only considers these differences, but also puts a total priority weight for each variable. These characteristics have an important role in forming strategies and scenarios for agricultural development. Therefore, the case of Iran was used to illustrate the application of MICMAC aiming to supply instructions for the development of agriculture system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]