Ehsan Mokaram Zahed, Roya Eshraghi Samani, Bita Rahimibadr, Alireza Noshary,
Volume 0, Issue 0 (1-2026)
Abstract
Objective: This study aims to analyze and prioritize the effects of support facilities and marketing strategies on the economic performance of rural livestock farms in Khorasan Razavi Province.
Methods: This study employed the Analytic Network Process (ANP) multi-criteria decision-making model, which enables the examination of internal relationships and interdependencies between criteria and sub-criteria. The conceptual framework comprised 7 main criteria and 25 sub-criteria, developed to provide a precise explanation of factors influencing economic performance. Required data were collected through a pairwise comparison questionnaire completed by 237 livestock farmers across various counties in Khorasan Razavi Province.
Results: Results from data analysis revealed that three criteria—"support facilities," "economic costs," and "marketing strategies"—hold the highest importance in explaining the economic performance of livestock units. At the sub-criteria level, "feed costs" received the highest weight, indicating the substantial cost burden this input places on livestock farmers. Additionally, "market access" and "amount of loans received" ranked second and third respectively, demonstrating the importance of effective sales and adequate financial resources for development and sustainability of operations. Other significant sub-criteria include "livestock product insurance" and "establishing cooperatives," which play key roles in risk reduction and marketing improvement.
Conclusions: The research findings indicate that enhancing the economic performance of rural livestock farming requires focusing on optimizing support policies, reducing input costs, developing marketing infrastructure, and strengthening insurance coverage. These results can serve as a solid scientific foundation for decision-makers and policymakers in the agricultural sector to formulate development-oriented, targeted, and realistic programs.
Mohamadreza Rezvani, Tahereh Sadeghloo, Hasanali Farajisabokbar, Abdorreza Eftekhri,
Volume 2, Issue 3 (6-2013)
Abstract
Marketing of agricultural products is being considered as one of the most fundamental and important measures for development in rural environments. As such, the identification of responsible factors for marketing of perishable products namely dairy products could facilitate marketing process and as a result diminish the associated problems in local communities. The identification of responsible and influential measures as well as the adjustment of their spatial distribution ,taking into account the temporal constraints and the nature of the products at different stages with regard to both traditional and semi modern producers is a very determinant action . This in turn is associated with time-costs losses issue, cutting the hands of the mediators, decrease in shipping costs in relation to distance decay function, increase in profits and enhancement of economic growth in rural areas. Therefore, the exact determination of responsible factors for facilitating dairy marketing networks as well as their spatial distribution in rural area is a prime objective of rural economic planning at different decision level. This study aims to identify the major responsible factors regarding dairy marketing networks with particular emphasis on geographic factors in Khodabandeh, Zanjan. This study is based on analyticaldescriptive method. It further supports the application of filling questionnaires by experts and analysis of variance. This study suggests that taking into account level of the analysis, functional-behavioral factor would consider as the most prominent factor regarding the dairy marketing network and its corresponding spatial distribution.
