Introduction: Credits are a key element in modernization of agricultural activities and economic sustainability of local communities, which can solve the financial and capital constraints of farmers and be effective in increasing their productivity. Since agriculture is one of the main activities of the people living in Ghale-No district of Rey County in Iran, it is expected that the allocation of credits to the agricultural sector will have an impact on the economic sustainability of the local communities of its villages. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating “to what extent, agricultural credits are effective in economic sustainability of local communities of Ghale-No district in Rey County?” and “which of the components of sustainability are most highly affected by agricultural credits?”. Answering the questions raised in the evaluation of agricultural credits is important, because it can be an important factor in recognizing and eliminating the weaknesses of rural and agricultural development programs and increasing the appropriate solutions in this regard.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical research was conducted in 2024 in the villages of Ghale-No district of Rey County. The research was an applied one in terms of purpose and it was a survey to investigate the role of agricultural credits in the economic sustainability of local communities in the villages of the district. In this research, two types of statistical population were used; the first one was related to the residents of the villages who were determined based on a random sampling (366 people) and distributed among the studied villages based on the percentage and the second one involved agricultural and rural managers and elites in the region, which were selected as a sample population based on a targeted sampling (30 people). In addition, SPSS software and Fuzzy Best-Worst Model (BWM) were used to analyze data.
Results and Discussion: The results of the sample t-test showed that the economic sustainability status of local communities in the villages of Ghale-No, with the average value obtained above the average number (i.e. 3), was evaluated as “favorable”. Then, based on the results of Pearson correlation test, there were some significantly positive relationships between the variable of economic sustainability of local communities and the indicators of granting low-interest bank facilities (0.555), reducing administrative bureaucracy in receiving facilities (0.564), prioritizing agriculture in lending (0.544), proportionating the amount of the loan with the credit required to set up agricultural businesses (0.576), helping to rebuild agricultural equipment (0.577), providing working capital (0.543), the usefulness of agricultural loans in terms of collateral (0.511), the usefulness of agricultural loans in terms of flexibility (0.522), the appropriate time for repayments (0.490) and helping to increase the quantitative and qualitative capacities of the economic unit (0.456), at a significant level less than 0.05. Finally, the ranking results showed that income component (0.175), job variety (0.174), production and sales variety (0.169), marketing (0.163) and investment (0.133) were respectively assigned to be most highly affected by the agricultural credits.
Conclusion and Suggestions: It might be concluded that the credits are considered as a key element in the modernization of agricultural activities and the economic sustainability of local communities; therefore, granting the agricultural credits can be suggested to solve the financial and capital constraints of farmers as well as to increase their productivity.