Performance Evaluation of Rural Production Cooperatives on the Sustainable Agricultural Development Case Study: Nishabour County)

Purpose: In the present research, the effects of rural production cooperatives in sustainable agriculture in the 12 villages of Nishabour have been investigated. The main objective of this research is to analyze of rural production cooperatives in agricultural infrastructure development and its effect on the stability.
Methodology: This research was based on descriptive- analytical methods, and the data were collected using both documentary and field studies. The questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS software and ARC GIS was used in order to create the maps. Statistical community is farmer members (2678 people) living in 12 villages covered with rural production cooperatives. To assess the performance of rural production cooperatives, based on the Topsis technique, eleven indexes in 12 villages are compared and ranked. The impacts of rural production cooperatives on the sustainable agricultural development are analyzed, based on many indicators, including 13 economic indicators, 16 social indicators and 20 environmental indicators.
Findings: The average of the three dimensions of economic, social and environmental sustainability was calculated 2.74, 2.41 and 3.33. On this basis, the cooperative effect of the stronger social sustainability, but economic sustainability in the medium and the environmental sustainability of the impact has been poor. The analytical results indicate that the performance of the rural production cooperatives in most villages has not been successful. Three cooperatives, including Fooshanjan, Simorgh No. 5 and Simorgh No. 4, have provided highest services with the performance ratio of 0.896, 0.471 and 0.398 respectively. These villages have higher stability than other villages in the area. The correlation between the levels of services provided to rural cooperatives and agricultural sustainability Indicative the significant positive correlation in economic and social dimensions.
Research limitation: The major limitation of the study is the lack of information about the performance of the cooperatives in villages covered.
Practical implications: The government should increase the financial and technical support to provide a favorable background for development of RPCs.
Original/value: The present work is original in view of analysis on the effects of rural production cooperatives in agricultural infrastructure development and its effect on the stability in sustainable agriculture.