Agric. sci. dev., Vol(3), No (10), October, 2014. pp.

326-329

TI Journals

ISSN:

Agriculture Science Developments

2306-7527

www.tijournals.com

Copyright 2014. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

The Role of Agriculture Section in Area Development

(Case Study: Lorestan Province)
Farhad Zand*
Department of Social Science, Payame Noor University, I.R.IRAN.
*Corresponding author: zandpnu2012@gmail.com

Keywords

Abstract

Lorestan
Agriculture
Development
Numerical Taxonomy

Agricultural development is the achievement in a series of planned activities linked and coordinated in order
to apply the changes and developments favorable to broaden the areas of expansion of activities in the
development of, and increased performance in a comprehensive program of socio-economic development.
This research has been carried to assess and determine the level of development in cities of the province
under the rubric of agricultural development in 2010 using numerical taxonomy model. Results suggest there
is a rather deep gap between regions. The study suggests Dorud with 0.45381 is in the first rank, Selseleh
with 0.46202 stands in second place and Aligoodarz with 0.84066 and Chegeni with 0.91891 occupy the last
rank.

1.

Introduction

In literature, there are offered three insights about development: Development as a set of individual actions, the development as a process of
radical transformation, and in ally, the development as a set of individual actions. Although the economic achievements are one of the most
important factors, it is not the only. The reason is that economic development is not simply an economic phenomenon. Therefore, the main
objective is to develop a universal model for the optimal development of all segments of society [1]. Today, despite various economic
developments, the importance of agriculture to develop rural areas and urban areas continues. For millions of poor rural farmers, it can be the
only way out of the economic changes of recent decades. With the development of agriculture, small towns, there are new jobs, small firms are
held, and finally commuting to the small town grows. In some cases, agricultural development increases demand for goods manufactured and
adds job opportunities in cities. Thus, it can be said that urban development will not only lead to the formation of a regional economy but it will
affect the economy of surrounding cities. Urban development will not only increase the demand for agricultural products, but also causes a
surplus of agricultural production, markets and provides reassurance [2]. Rural development is a long established concept although the concept
of content and functionality has been in order to organize the rural areas in less developed countries, due to the role of rural development as a
strategy for improving community life among economically poor rural people. In addition, its spread includes resources of development among
the poorest people in rural areas or in other words, small farmers, leasing, and other disadvantaged groups without land. Then; the main objective
is reducing rural poverty [3].
Imbalance between population growth and agricultural production have faced developing countries with a serious challenge. Limited food
supplies, have attracted the experts to research on food and nutrition worldwide. Sustainable agriculture in the form of an integrated system of
plant and animal products can meet basic human needs. For this reason, the World Bank suggests that the importance of agriculture is growing,
directly or indirectly, in the context of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in low-income countries [3]. Agriculture as a
key sector is of great importance in our countrys economic development and strategic part of the food needs of a growing population, in the
development program. It's about 15 percent of GDP and provides a fifth of all employed people in the country and 80 percent of domestic food
products.
Bardy and Moradnezhad [4] in paper entitled status of development in the agricultural provinces in the key indicators conclude that the gap
between provinces in the field of agriculture has been profound. It was more than five times. Khorasan, Fars, Mazandaran, Kerman, Isfahan and
Tehran provinces are among developed provinces while Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Kohgiluieh and Boyer Ahmad, Qom,
Ilam, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province belong to the most deprived provinces.
Mohammadi et.al [5] in a paper entitled Investigation of development level of Lorestan cities in housing, welfare infrastructure services,
agriculture and industry concluded that inequality in Lorestan cities increased in the housing and utilities - infrastructure and declined in
agriculture and industry. We should also pay attention to the most deprived townships of Delfan, Aligoodarz, and Poldokhtar.
Fetros and Beheshti [6] made in a research on the comparison of degree of development in the country's agricultural sector during the two
periods of 72s and 82s coming to the conclusion the level of agricultural development over the years has increased, on average and agricultural
dualism between them is reduced
In 2004, Shakeri [7] in his paper entitled role of agriculture section in the process of economic development showed that the nation development
ground must be reinforced to realize the objectives of growth and development and enhanced the status of agriculture in national development.

327

The Role of Agriculture Section in Area Development (Case Study: Lorestan Province)
Agriculture Science Developments Vol(3), No (10), October, 2014.

He added the conflict between agriculture and industry and the economy is not realized and minimal development funds for agricultural research
and development are allocated which reduces the share of agriculture from development.
Sadeghi and Homayunfar [8] researched about the role of agriculture in providing job opportunities and reduction of unemployment and showed
that agriculture share in job opportunity is declining while productivity of labor force is increasing and increased attention to the cultivation
lands of the current situation in Iran for the improvement of agriculture and agricultural employment can be helpful ways to improve
development.
Salem and Namazi [9] in their paper entitled role of agriculture section in the development of Yazd province concluded that agricultural section
has not been able to play an important role in economic development. This paper explains the agriculture section in different aspects such as
occupation creation, food security and industrial raw materials, supply of capital, the balance of payments assistance to help market and insists
the benefits of public service operators is agriculture is not in tandem with the government's positive role in human development.

2.

Methodology

Lorestan province with an area of 28064 square kilometers is located in the West of country between latitude and 32.37 to 34.32 N and
longitude 46.51 to 50.30 E. It covers 1.7% of total area of the country, with 257000 households, 121000 of which live in rural areas. Although
the population is becoming younger, the active population in agriculture is declining and continuing this trend in the future will affect
agriculture. Lorestan is neighbor to province of Hamedan in North, Markazi province in North East, to Kermanshah in north west, to Ilam in the
West and southwest and, to Chaharmhal and Bakhtiari in south east, to Khuzistan in south, and Isfahan is located on its East side.In 1389 the
province had 10 Townships and 23 cities and 26 towns and 83 districts and 2750 villages are inhabited.

Figure 1. Location of Lorestan in Iran.

Lorestan province with more than 840 thousand hectares of agricultural land and an annual production of over 2 million and 500 thousand tons
of product varieties is allocated 10 % share of non-oil exporting countries. These statistics show that there has been presented no effective
strategy to use the empowerment potentiality of the province and agricultural products of the province are not known in the country.
However, given that this region can provide much of the country's food needs, helping to provide development in the region can help spur
agricultural export earnings.

3.

Conclusion

Coordinated development of different areas of a region is the vital basis to achieve national unity. Before adopting any policy development, the
fundamental problem areas must be identified. This action causes the planner to have a better understanding of regional issues to their offering.
The purpose of this study is to present the scientific explanation of the major disparities between provinces in agriculture and then determine its
ratio. The answer to this question to what extent there is gap agriculture in the province, and whether these disparities are due to natural
differences or factors such as human resource management are also influenced are the consequence efforts of the researchers.

Farhad Zand *

328

Agriculture Science Developments Vol(3), No (10), October, 2014.

Lorestan province in western Iran, is one of the western provinces with more than 840 thousand agricultural lands in agricultural areas, i.e 4.91
% of the country's agricultural land, while 197,000 hectares and 30,657 hectares of crops have to be irrigated and rain fed, respectively. In this
research, 15 major agricultural indexes were analyzed using taxonomy model to classify the province townships.
Based on a composite distance matrix results, the homogeneous spaces of study areas must be between 0 and 1.The results shows that all cities
are in the homogeneity range in 2010 in agriculture section and are homogeneous to each other.
D(-) = 2/2/25971 < d< D (+)= 4/44938
Using the taxonomic model, level of development in the province in agriculture section for 2010 was calculated and the results are given in
Table 1.
Table 1. The development of the agricultural sector based on selected indicators.
Township

Fi

Cio

Doroud

0.45381

4.015502

Seleseleh

0.46202

4.08819

Khorramabad

0.60582

5.36054

Boroujerd

0.62178

5.50176

Koohdasht

0.71626

6.33781

Delfan

0.75143

6.64900

Azna

0.50828

7.15198

Poldokhtar
Aligoodarz
Chegini

0.80990
0.84066
0.89191

7.16770
7.43856
8.13095

According to the results obtained, it is characterized underdevelopment of the border is 6.1841.Dorud and Selseleh are more developed than
other regions.Other cities in the province including Aligoodarz,and Chegeni have a lower level of development, and are underserved areas of the
province.
Table 2. General categories based on the degree of development areas
Development Level

Degree of Development

Township

Moderately developed

0.05

Selseleh

Less Developed

0.5 - 0.75

Khorramabad, Boroujerd, Azna, Delfan, Poldokhtar

Undeveloped

0.75 1.00

Aligoodarz, Chegini

The results show that Doroud and Selseleh rank the first and second with development degree of 0.45 and 0.46, respectively. There is a
distance between the second and third ranks. Chegeni and Aligoodarz cities with the degree of development 0.804660 and 0.9189 are
situated as the most underdeveloped areas of the region. Based on the information developed regions, 20%, 40% and 40% are
categorized in developed, less developed and disadvantaged areas.

Figure 2. Map of Lorestan Province based on Development Level.

329

The Role of Agriculture Section in Area Development (Case Study: Lorestan Province)
Agriculture Science Developments Vol(3), No (10), October, 2014.

According to the above results, we cannot attribute all these deprivations to unsuitable natural situations, so it can be said that some of the
indicators of regional disparities in agriculture, are limited to the environment and the lack of unfavorable soil and climate but the management
has a significant role in regional disparities. Some studies, such as Ahangari [10],[11] and Zand (2013) also suggest that there is inequality in the
region.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]

Todaro, M (1990) Economic development in the Third World. Translate by Farjadi, G.A. Higher Institute for Research in Planning and Development
publication, Tehran, Iran.
Shokuie, H (1998) New perspectives in urban geography. Journal of Rural and Development, 11(3):173-199.
World Bank. (2006) Org/wbi/source book/sba2/htm.
Moradnezhad A, Bardi R. 2008. Status of development of country provinces in Agriculture section.Rural and Development journal,3(11).
Mohammadi J, Abdoli A, Fathi beiranvand M. 2012. The evaluate of level of development in lorestan province with separation of services amenities Economy - Agriculture Industry. Applied Research of Geographical Sciences, 25.
Fetros, M and Beheshtifar, M (2008) Compare the level of development of the country's agricultural section in two time periods of 1993- 2003. Egtesad -e
- keshavarzi & tosea. 17(65):17-39.
Shakeri, A. (2004) The Role of agriculture in economic development process. Journal of Eghtesade Keshavarzi va Tosea, 48:105-136
Sadeghi, H. and Homaionfar, M (2001) The role of agriculture in providing employment and reducing unemployment. Economic Research Journal,1:1734.
Salem, J and Namazi, A (2007) The role of agriculture in economic development in Yazd Province.. Journal of Rural and Development,10(1): 23-39.
Ahangari, A.M and Dalvand, M (2005) Determine the level of development of Lorestan Province Counties (1994-2004). Master Thsis, Shahid Chamran
Unuversity, Ahvaz, Iran.
Ahangari, A.M and SaadatMehr, M (2007) Comparative study of the separation of social and economic development in the lorestan province Counties.
Journal of Knowledge and Development,41.
Zand, F (2013) Determining the Level of Development Agriculture by Using Taxonomy Technique (Case study, Hamadan Province Townships).
International Journal of Agronomy and Plant Production, 4(9):2203 2208.
Zand, F, Noori, K and Babaeinezhad, N (2013) Review of Level of Development with Emphasis on the Livestock Industry. Journal of Novel Applied
Sciences,2, 821-825.
Zand, F, Shahverdi, H and Doostipour, H (2013) The Survey Pattern of Development with emphasis on Agriculture Section. Technical Journal of
Engineering and Applied Sciences,3(22);3204-3208.