Farm Corporations as Agropolitan Development in Iran
Subject Areas : Iranian Sociological ReviewSeyed Ali Hashemianfar 1 , Shahriyar Paknia 2 , Maryam Sabeti 3
1 - Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Isfahan University
2 - Ph.D. Student of Sociology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran
3 - Ph.D. Student of Sociology, Islamic Azad University, Dehaghan Branch
Keywords: Agropolitan, farm corporations, rural-urban development, commercial and industrial agri, agropolis,
Abstract :
This article wants to propose this theory that Farm Corporations are agropolitan development models in Iran. As over-concentrating investments to the urban areas did not lead to a trickledown effect to the rural areas. To the extreme, there are ideas to minimize linkages with the urban economy, and to make the rural areas pursue self-sufficiency by maximizing its potentials. However, against this idea. They argue that rural areas cannot replicate an urban economy, because population concentration is needed to justify the production of various goods and services needed to fulfill the people’s needs and wants. Instead, sustainable rural economic growth should be pursued through specializing in the commodities in which the area has comparative advantage. Only a balanced flow can contribute to a healthy rural-urban linkage. These small urban centers play a role as the provider of basic urban services and as the collectors and processors of rural produces. These small urban centers are those agropolitans. Theoretical framework of this article is based on views, theories and perspectives of Rondinelli, Freidmann, Douglass, Pradhan, Saefulhakim, Anwar, Rustiadi, de Jung and Smith. After discussion and analysis of votes, Agropolitan development objective and its criteria are reviewed and summarized. Farm corporations are discussed as a model of industrial and commercial agriculture within typology of farming system in Iran. Agricultural companies Khezri and Islamabad general and specific features, structure and organization and labor as a case study in two dimensions comprised of modern agriculture organization and urban features are discussed and defined as a model of rural-urban balanced development .methodology in this study is based on documentary and field study and element analysis of an agropolitan system.