شناسايی و اولويتبندي راهبردهاي توسعه كارآفرينی و تجاريسازي زعفران مناطق روستايی استان خراسان جنوبی.

The way traditional agricultural activities in the South Khorasan province are moving towards innovative activities and providing appropriate strategies has always been one of the attractive issues for researchers in this province. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study is to identify and prioritize saffron entrepreneurship development and commercialization strategies in rural areas of the South Khorasan province. In this research, SWOT-AHP is used as an integrated approach. First, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of saffron activities in rural areas of the South Khorasan Province are identified and categorized by using SWOT analysis. Since the decision making in the present research study is of a multiindex type and its structure has a hierarchical component of decision-making elements, including goal, criteria and sub-criteria, the hierarchical analysis process (AHP) to calculate the weight and importance of each of the criteria. The following criteria have been used through SWOT analysis. In order to collect the research data, the matrix of paired comparisons of each of the components and groups was completed using 15 experts and agricultural industry activists, whose internal strengths with the relative weight of 372/0 were in the first rank and also external opportunities with a relative weight of 344/0. Moreover, external threats have a relative weight of 148, and, finally, internal weaknesses with a relative weight of 136/0 were ranked next. The results show that the most important strategy for the development of entrepreneurship and commercialization of saffron in rural areas of the South Khorasan province is the SO strategy with a utility index of 26.2. The most suitable strategies of this kind are a creation of a suitable platform for private sector investment in the development and commercialization of agricultural products, use of specialized and experienced personnel to establish community-based associations, and promote and educate them in the field of commercialization, with emphasis on practical aspects through meetings. And various meetings with the people of the region, marketing, and advertising to introduce strategic products of the South Khorasan province. Strengthening and supporting purchasing cooperatives in the cultivation areas were selected for direct purchase from farmers as the most important strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]