TEHRAN – Development projects implemented over the past three years have created more than 262,000 job opportunities in rural areas, Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari has said.

Since February 2018, some 130 trillion rials (about $3 billion at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials) have been invested in 142,000 job creation plans in villages across the country, he explained.

The administration is making efforts to pay more attention to economic development in villages in order to pave the way for increasing rural population and help reverse the current trend of migration from villages to cities, he added.

Many efforts have been made over the past couple of years by the government to support villagers and slow down the trend of migration from rural areas to cities.

Rural tourism, agritourism, religious tourism, and ecotourism are alternatives or complementary economic activities that could further stimulate rural development while decreasing rural community dependency on one main economic sector (agriculture, forestry, energy, or mining).

In November 2020, Mohammad Omid, the vice president for rural development, said a total of 220 trillion rials (nearly $5.6 billion) has been approved for the development of villages in the current year (March 2020-March 2021).

Currently, 26 percent of the country's population lives in villages, he said, adding that around 39,000 villages have more than 20 households and 23,000 villages have less than 20 households.

Thus, more than 97 percent of the country's rural population lives in villages with over 20,000 households, he noted.

The unemployment rate in rural areas has reached 7.4 percent, which has decreased by over one percent compared to last year, he concluded.

In Iran, October 6 is celebrated each year as the National Day of Villagers and Nomads. 

MG