Consequences of Creative Agriculture and its Role in the Development of Rural Areas of Roshtkhar County.

Purpose- Supporting and stimulating agricultural development has a decisive role in rural development and is considered the main basis of rural development. Therefore, the agricultural sector and rural areas in Iran are still far from the real potentials for development. Therefore, this study aimed at the consequences of creative agriculture and its role in the development of rural areas of Roshtkhar County in Razavi Khorasan province. Design/methodology/approach-This research was an applied one, conducted with descriptive-correlation and causal-relational methods. The statistical population of the research consists of all heads of rural households (21,785) in Roshtkhar County, using the Cochran formula, 377 farmers from the heads of households were selected as a sample. The main tools of the research were researcher-made questionnaire, field observations and library studies. Then, the questionnaires were distributed in 20 villages of the study area. SPSS software and structural equation modeling approach were employed to analyze the data. Findings: The results of the fitted model showed that creative agriculture had the greatest effects on economic (0.405) and social (0.370) variables. The results of investigating the status of creative agriculture in the study area showed that more than 60% of rural farmer households stated that creative agriculture has been able to play a significant role in rural development. Limitations/Strategies: The dispersion of the studied villages to fill out the questionnaire depending on the topic at the village level, the lack of awareness of some rural households towards conducting research projects in order to complete the questionnaire, and finally the costs of conducting this research are challenging of this study. Practical solutions: Finally, according to the results, solutions such as the full implementation of modern irrigation systems, changing the cultivation pattern and using up-to-date machinery and tools in the agricultural sector can improve the results and the consequences of creative agriculture and its role in rural development in the villages and the implementation strategies of this solution are considered necessary. Original/value- This study is significant as the recognition of different issues of creative agriculture at the regional level can help to take an important step in order to improve the condition of rural households in different dimensions (economic, social-cultural, institutional-managerial and physical). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]