Identifying and Prioritizing Strategies for the Development of Olive Cultivation: Toward the Sustainable Agribusiness Development

Background: Although studies indicate the existence of extensive and, at the same time, scattered programs during the years after the revolution in the field of removing deprivation, improvement, and rural construction, with the allocation of necessary credits in the field of rural programs, it seems that deprivation, poverty, and inequality still prevail in rural areas.The effects of this situation are visible in the issues and problems of rural areas, including unemployment of family members, population evacuation and physical destruction of the village, poverty and inequality, lack of access to educational and health facilities, increasing dependence on government social support, inability to face climate changes, weakness of infrastructure, land degradation, low-yield agriculture, loss of valuable pastures, and low level of income.To fulfill its missions, including ensuring the food security of the society and playing an effective role in strengthening national independence, the agricultural sector needs a rapid transition from the subsistence and traditional production stage to the industrial and commercial production stage.In this regard, agricultural development can provide opportunities for attracting facilities and services in the village and is an important factor in preventing unemployment and its negative consequences and problems.Among agricultural products, olive trees have long been of interest to different societies due to their long life, adaptability to relatively a wide spectrum of environmental conditions, historical aspects, and their high value in human nutrition and health.This is because the development of olive cultivation in the region is an important factor for attracting labor, creating employment, generating income, reducing unemployment, and especially preventing group migrations and evacuation of manpower from villages.In this direction and to improve the welfare of villagers, the present research aimed to identify the strategies for the development of olive cultivation in the rural areas of Rijab City.Methods: In terms of the purpose, the current research is considered a descriptive survey research in the category of applied research and data collection and analysis.A combined approach (qualitative-quantitative), Delphi methods, and hierarchical analysis were used to achieve the goal of the research.The community studied in this research was exemplary and leading farmers, experts of the Agricultural Jihad Organization, and subject matter experts in Rijab City, among which 21 people were selected as members of the Delphi panel using the purposeful Snowball sampling method.In this research, a consensus was reached after three rounds of investigation regarding the strategies for the development of olive cultivation in the rural areas of Rijab City.The main research tool in the first Delphi round was a questionnaire with open-ended questions, a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions in the second and third rounds, and a pairwise comparison questionnaire in the hierarchical analysis stage.The data were analyzed using coding, content analysis, and descriptive statistics in SPSS, Excel, and Expert Choice software.Results: Based on the research results, for the development of olive cultivation in the rural areas of Rijab City, 27 solutions were identified in the form of four general categories, including educational and skill solutions, cultural and social solutions, infrastructural and service solutions, and economic and support solutions.The most frequency was dedicated to economic and support solutions.It was also determined that the solutions for paying low-interest facilities for the construction of olive gardens and the development of olive processing and packaging industries were respectively the most important and, in other words, the most appropriate solutions for the development of olive cultivation in the rural areas of Rijab City.