Assessing the challenges facing entrepreneurship in small-scale agricultural businesses in rural areas, case study: Khodabandeh Township

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Azam Bigdeli 1
Jamshid Einali 2
Maryam Mohammdlo 3
1 PhD Student in Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
2 Associate Professor of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
3 Master's student in Geography and Tourism Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
10.30470/jrdes.2025.2054219.1059
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to investigate the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs in small-scale agricultural activities in Khodabandeh County, Zanjan Province. The statistical population of the study consisted of 325 people using bank credits in the field of agricultural entrepreneurship with the introduction of the Agricultural Jihad in the period from 1390 to 1400 in rural areas of Khodabandeh . Due to time and cost constraints, 257 of them were selected as samples using the Cochran formula. One-sample t-tests and exploratory factor analysis were used for quantitative data analysis. The results of the one-sample t-test show that macro-environmental forces and economic factors with numerical means of (3.97) and (3.53) are the most important challenges in starting and developing small-scale agricultural entrepreneurship from the perspective of rural entrepreneurs. Also, the results of the factor analysis of the challenges faced by small-scale agricultural entrepreneurs, considering the value of the KMO statistic (0.836) and the significance of the Bartlett test at the 99 confidence level, show that the research variables are categorized into 6 factors: regulations and financing (21.20); education and infrastructure (13.96); start-up costs and market fluctuations (11.38); production organizations and trust (9.66); personality traits (8.21) and group cooperation (7.69), which together account for 72% of the variance.
Keywords
Rural development
rural economy
small businesses
rural entrepreneurship
Zanjan province
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  • Receive Date 25 July 2024
  • Revise Date 26 September 2024
  • Accept Date 23 February 2025
  • Publish Date 20 March 2025