Determining the Priorities and Rankings of Agricultural and Rural Activities for Economic Development in Hamedan Province

Abstract
Today increasing production capacity requires the special attention on agricultural sector and increasing investment in this sector. Achievement of a higher level of production considering the limitation of resources, is one the most important economic and developmental goals of every society and serious attention to regional capacities and directing regional investments toward development and expansion of production activities is one of the development necessities. In the present article it has been tried to first provide a framework of concepts and techniques of regional economy as well as a scientific and expert analysis from agricultural structure of Hamedan province. It has also been tried to identify the activities of the agricultural sector and investment priorities in the agriculture of this province and considering he sub-sectors of agriculture that have a higher priority, it has been tried to provide a proper context for agricultural growth and development. For this purpose, with the use of factor analysis, Numerical Taxonomy methods and based on the provided information and data by statistics center of Iran in 2012, investment priorities in agricultural sector have been determined and specified for Hamedan province. Results of this study indicate that production of crops, horticulture products, animal husbandry, livestock and poultry production, dairy production, food processing industries have the highest rate of profitability. Also, production of carpets, rugs, Jajim, Gabbeh and transportation and warehousing services have the highest capacity for employment.

JEL Classification: Q18 , R28

Keywords:
Planning, Taxonomy, Factor Analysis, Agriculture, Economic Development, Hamedan Province