Rural entrepreneurship is a new way in development theories for empowerment and capacity building in rural areas to change the current lifestyle to a desirable and humanistic  pattern. One of the manifestations of entrepreneurship is pluriactivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze and ponder over the farmers' pluriactivity. Pluriactivity is defined as a combination of agricultural and non-agricultural activities that are run by the farmer's household. In other words, pluriactivity refers to the fact that one person (farmer) or group of people (farmers) are involved in different activities (agricultural and non-agricultural). These types of farmers are called pluriactive farmers. In general, the types of businesses alongside agriculture are classified into three categories: industry, agriculture (outside the main activity of the farmer) and services. Pluriactive farmers include 1- Farmer as Farmer; 2- Farmer as Entrepreneur; 3- Farmer as Contractor and 4- Rural Entrepreneur. Developing smallholder farmers' pluriactivity is crucial to promotion living standards, reducing urban and rural income disparities, controlling the urbanization process, and reducing the cost of social reproduction. Therefore, paying attention to the farmers' pluriactivity is a step forward towards sustainable rural development.

Extended Abstract
Introduction and Objective: In response to the global economy, policymakers have focused on the development of small businesses, regional business associations, and local entrepreneurs. Given that the agricultural sector is responsible for ensuring the food security of the growing population, however, in many cases, prioritizing the production of sufficient food overshadows the issue of the health of agricultural products produced. These factors have led to the preservation of the environment and food safety security has become one of the human challenges in the present age and the international community is looking for appropriate strategies to solve problems and achieve sustainable development systems. One of the most important strategies is to pay attention to the position of entrepreneurship, which aims to increase profits, increase product production with minimal reliance on the use of chemicals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the entrepreneurial intention of small and medium agricultural businesses with the mediating role of psychological capital.
Material and Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive research in terms of data collection and is a branch of field studies and is causal in terms of the relationship between research variables. The statistical population of the present study was rice farmers in Noor city. Using available random sampling method and Cochran's formula, 89 people were selected as the sample. A standard questionnaire was used to collect information. In this study, to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire, the methods of "content validity" and "structural validity" were used. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure the reliability of the research variables.
Result: The research results showed that; At the 95% confidence level, entrepreneurial orientation has a significant effect on the entrepreneurial intention of small and medium-sized agricultural businesses, and also psychological capital helps to facilitate this relationship.
Conclusion: In order for paddy farmers to be able to grow their business and gain a foothold in the market, they must be aware of the importance of psychological capital and introduce new products and services by strengthening R&D activities as well as making changes. Focus product lines.
 

Extended Abstract
Introduction and Objective: Agribusinesses that follow conventional approach, due to overuse of off-farm inputs threaten ecosystem services, environmental health and human life. Insisting on the continuation of these type of businesses will threaten the sustainable livelihoods of the rural population, as well as the lives and health of consumers. Therefore, to deal with these threats, the creation and development of organic production businesses is an inevitable necessity.The present study sought to first identify and prioritize the challenges of creating and developing organic wheat production business and then introduce appropriate solutions to remove these obstacles and challenges.
Material and Methods: The present study used the Delphi technique to identify and prioritize the barriers and solutions of the creation and development of organic wheat production business. Using snowball sampling, 21 Agriculture-Jahad specialists of Markazi province were selected to participate in two rounds of Delphi technique. The data from the semi-structured interview of the first round were coded using the content analysis and then were compiled as a Likert scale and again provided to the experts for scoring. The coefficient of variation was used to end the Delphi technique and the normalized weight index was used to prioritize the variables.
Results: The results revealed that lack of initial capital, lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy, improper marketing, insufficient knowledge and skills and low motivation along with long period of transition and lack of insurance coverageas were the most important challenges respectively and the formation of a wheat growers’ cooperative, the payment of low-interest facilities, training and extension, crop insurance and guaranteed purchase along with supplying inputs were the most important solutions respectively.
Conclusion: In short, in this study an economic challenge i.e. insufficient initial capital has been introduced as the first and most important obstacle for creating and developing the organic wheat production business and a policy issue i.e., lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy has been introduced as the second important obstacle. Other challenges, namely marketing, cognitive and psychological problems, are overshadowed by these two challenges and are in the next ranks. The interesting thing is that given the challenges, a social action, i.e., organizing wheat farmers in the form of a production cooperative, has been introduced as the first and most important solution to address the challenges and reduce their adverse effects. So that other measures such as payment of facilities, holding training and extension courses, insurance, guaranteed purchase of the products and supply of inputs within it and through it will be facilitated, accelerated and implemented.

 

Extended Abstract
Background: Today, medicinal plants play a vital role in health, creating employment, and economic development. Despite paying attention to the development of medicinal plant cultivation in Mazandaran province in recent years, resulting in employment creation in rural communities and the reduction of migration, farmers in rural areas are facing challenges to cultivate these plants and employment in this field. Furthermore, the unemployment rate index in this county is higher than the country and the province. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze employment challenges and obstacles in the field of medicinal plants in North Svadkuh County, Mazandaran province.
Methods: In this survey with a quantitative approach, the statistical population consisted of the farmers in North Savadkuh county of Mazandaran province, and 204 farmers were selected using Daniel's formula and simple random sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, and its content validity was confirmed by a group of horticultural, extensional, and educational experts. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine its reliability with an appropriate value (0.7-0.9). Moreover, 175 out of 204 distributed questionnaires were returned to the researchers. Data were analyzed using SPSS_V26 software.
Results: The findings in the descriptive statistics section showed that most of the farmers (64.6%) were men, mostly with a bachelor’s educational level (37.1%), and their main occupation was agriculture for the majority of the farmers (60.6%). In total, four factors were identified based on the results of exploratory factor analysis on 15 variables of the farmers facing challenges and obstacles in Northern Svadkuh county, Mazandaran province. These factors include skill-logistic factors (17.749%), harvesting and postharvest stage problems, lack of good stories for harvested medicinal plants, damage to the product due to improper handling, and the absence of harvesting machines for medicinal plants in the region, extension-infrastructural factors (17.493%), planting, growing, harvesting, and postharvest stages problems, inattention to medicinal plant cultivation capacity in the region by policymakers, the absence of experts and specialists of medicinal plants in the Agricultural Jihad Organization of the city, the absence of model farms for medicinal plants in the region, limited extension training and classes-farmer field school (FFS), and lack of proper mechanization in the planting, growing, harvesting, and processing of medicinal plants. The rest of the factors include processing industries-marketing factors (16.735%) postharvest stage problems, raw sales and non-processing of medicinal plant products, the absence of medicinal plant packaging companies in the region, the problem of sending raw medicinal plants to other cities, traditional use (without processing) of most medicinal plants in the region, the absence of foreign market and export of medicinal plant products, technical knowledge and information factors (10.983%), growing stage problems, limited knowledge of experts and farmers in the non-chemical control of weeds and diseases of medicinal plant in the region, and farmers' unfamiliarity with the water requirements of medicinal plants).

Conclusion: According to the results, the main challenges of farmers for employment in the field of medicinal plants are skills and logistics, extension and infrastructure problems, and transformation and marketing industries of these plants. Thus, it is suggested to teach the skills of harvesting medicinal plants to the farmers and rural youth of the region by holding educational-extension classes. Besides, policymakers, executives, and planners are suggested to pay more attention to the creation of employment in rural areas, which is achieved through the cultivation of these plants, considering the conditions of the province and the capabilities of the Northern Svadkuh County in the production of medicinal plants. It is suggested to try in every district center, especially in the central and eastern regions of the province, which are susceptible to the cultivation of medicinal plants according to the document of the province. The presence of one or more experts with expertise in medicinal plants and proficiency in educational-extension methods should be facilitated to train farmers to promote employment and increase the cultivated area of the mentioned plants. The farmers should be trained in a practical and individual or group form by using suitable extension methods such as result and method demonstrations, a model site, and holding the FFS. In addition, it is possible to provide suitable tools and mechanization in all production stages of medicinal plants for the farmers of the region. The next suggestions are to create processing and packaging industries by providing low-interest and long-term facilities in the region, empowering farmers in terms of knowledge and skills regarding the marketing and processing of medicinal plant products, creating permanent and seasonal markets for direct sales, guaranteed purchase of products, facilitating domestic shipping to different provinces, paying attention to exports, and removing obstacles to international exports. The last suggestion is that a revision is necessary for the training courses of Agricultural Jihad experts of the county and the region, as well as agricultural students. The training should be changed from the theoretical presentation of topics, information, and knowledge into practical and field activities that lead to gaining more experience.