A SWOT analysis of aquaculture development in rural areas of Iran, an application to Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

In this study various important indices were selected to assess the sustainable aquaculture strategies in rural areas of Iran. In addition the government officials, consultants and managers were surveyed to assess the indices of aquaculture development. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analyses were used to make a comprehensive evaluation on internal and external factors, participating the development of aquaculture strategies. The sum of the attractiveness scores from the Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix was approximately 2.55, being larger than 2.5, indicating that the strengths exceed the weaknesses. The sum of the External Factor Evaluation Matrix scores was 3.49, indicating that opportunities were higher than threats. This analysis showed that the development of aquaculture, promotion of new cold-water species production, productivity enhancement, establishment of hatchery facilities and formation of an effective support organization are the most important strategies that should be considered in the studied area. Results obtained on this research help decision makers on work of the aquaculture sector in rural areas of Iran.