an evaluation about potentials of rural areas for entrepreneurship and developing empowerment in villagers, case: shawl district in buin zahra township

stability and survival of rural communities for the residents without productive and profitable engagement is impossible. in this context the emergence of rural entrepreneurship is inevitable. today, one of the most important strategies for rural development is attention to the entrepreneurial spirit among the villagers and farmers. thus entrepreneurship can improve quality of life, make better distribution of income and optimize utilization of resources by creating employments. this plays an important role in the economic development of rural area and reduces unwanted immigration and causes rural development and rural empowerment. main problem to achieve this goal is preparing the context in the rural society. the shawl district is a part of rural community in buin zahra town ship. instability is due to ecological conditions including drought and recent consequences such as lack of water, low water levels in wells as important source of  poor soil (soil is saline and alkaline). these do not allow increase cultivation and use modern agricultural machinery due to fragmentation of agricultural land and low level of productivity. due to weakness in the agricultural foundations, this is not able to provide economic and social indicators for rural development.  there are many problems in rural development including unemployment, especially youth unemployment, increasing rural-urban migration and youth trends in the delinquency, as this is leading to the village vacation in most cases, with integration in the nearby villages. finally, this is causing enlargement of the villages and inappropriate population facilities which leads to unemployment, and problems mentioned above. methodology this research is trying to find reasonable and appropriate responses for the following questions: 1. are there capacities located in villages for development of rural entrepreneurship in good conditions? 2. which the capacities and the fields (personal, economic, social, infrastructure) have the greatest impact on the development of entrepreneurship in the area? 3. what are the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic empowerment? the aim of this research is to evaluate capacities of rural areas for entrepreneurship and empowerment of rural residents by using documentary and field study through a descriptive- analytical research method. data were collected by questionnaire, interview and direct observation. the 196 households living in the shawl county and local authorities were selected as samples. the spss software and descriptive statistics (median, mean, variance, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (path analysis, correlation analysis, one- sample t -test, friedman, chi2) were used to analyze the data. the findings show that responders have evaluated all the indicators (average: 1: very little, 2: low, 3: medium, 4: good, 5: very good [based on a likert).       results the results indicate that the individual, economic, social and infrastructural capacities for development of entrepreneurship are very low in rural areas.  the results imply that there are a positive relation between education, age and income with appropriate contexts of entrepreneurship. based on the chi2 test, it can be said that with increase in fields of the entrepreneurial, the rate of trends of entrepreneurial households will also be increased. moreover, findings indicate that the infrastructures and personal’s capacity have the most effect on entrepreneurship and increasing the contexts of entrepreneurship in rural areas. all of the villages in the study area are not in good condition in all fields. if we strengthen this contexts (the personal and infrastructure), we can expect increasing of entrepreneurship and this may solve problem of unemployment and immigration in rural areas. as a result, it will increase income of villagers and cause rural development and empowerment of villagers.   conclusion according to the results of the research and studies in the field of rural proposals for the development of entrepreneurship and empowerment of villagers, the following statements can be concluded: 1. increasing in confidence by transferring responsibilities to executive and groups of villagers 2. there must be interest loans and credits with a long-term repayment for creating small businesses and quick efficiency to the village with monitoring the relevant organs. 3. potentials and opportunities to investors inside and out of the village can lead to the investment in rural areas through the creation of blogs and brochures by dhyaryand in rural management. 4. learning the skills such as entrepreneurship and business, english language, computer and internet to rural youth to learn about the business for creating new markets. 5. increasing awareness of villagers about international markets and consumer needs through training and extension services by educated persons and experienced young villagers 6. training courses of entrepreneurship and creativity for dhyary in the county, by the experienced coaches or successful entrepreneurs and classroom materials. 7. according to lack of effective institutions to support the establishment and development of cooperatives in the study area, cooperative and integrated rural development is essential for the creation of new businesses.