Aim: Identify local capacities and understand needs and capabilities and create a basis for empowering the rural economy in Razavieh district of Mashhad city.
Method and data: The research method is descriptive-analytical and applied. The information was collected through library and survey.The statistical population included rural household heads in 18 villages of Razavieh district with 303 people and the opinions of 26 experts in the area were questioned. The rural household questionnaire, general capacities and the experts questionnaire, economic capacities were examined.Data analysis was performed using SPSS software for one-sample t-test and exploratory factor analysis.
Findings: It shows that the household questionnaire used the t-test to identify general capacities. Therefore, natural and physical indicators had the highest score and the economic indicator had the lowest score. In the factor analysis method, the most important public capacities are explained by the factor of human resources and capabilities with 15.039 and economic capacities by the factor of local economic development and transformation and complementary industries with 34.142 percent of the variance.
Conclusion: The results show that the state of public capacities is not in a desirable state according to the evaluation of the indicators. The most important factors in public capacities are the factor of human resources and capabilities and economic capacities, the factor of local economic development and transformation and complementary industries.
Innovation, application of results: Comprehensive understanding of rural economic activities and capacities and capacity building strategy as promotion of local resources, mutual reinforcement of the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors leads to strengthening production, employment creation and ultimately economic development.
This study identifies public and economic capacities with two groups of households and experts, therefore it provides a comprehensive picture of the status of capacities that leads to the empowerment of local communities.