The empowerment as an essential step for attaining rural development, Case study: Meshkinshar County

Nowadays, empowerment causes the development of rural regions, because rural development is realized by changing and evolution of the knowledge, skill and attitude of rural people. For the simple reason that after accepting the new and newer ways, their thoughts will be changed. As a result, rural people will have a new attitude toward agricultural activities and other economic activities in rural regions. Finally, they create sustainable development of rural regions by promotion of their cognitive capacities (awareness and knowledge). The main objective of the present study is to find the role of empowerment on the development of rural regions. The research method is analytical and explanatory. Moreover, for the accomplishment of present study, 19 sample rural areas were randomly selected and 137 rural people were randomly chosen through Cochran’s formula. Also, the raw data of present research for measuring indices were collected through interview, observation, questionnaire, documents and evidences. In addition, for content validity of questionnaire, experts' opinions were obtained and used and the reliability of the questionnaire was checked by Chronbach's α coefficient and through SPSS software. Finally, in order to response the research question, using a series explaining indices of agricultural development and empowerment and assessing them in sample rural areas of Meshkinshar, the author found a significant relation between empowerment and rural development using of Pearson statistical test.