Introduction
Climate change poses significant threats to agricultural systems in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran, particularly in Fars province, where rural livelihoods are highly vulnerable. In response, shade houses have emerged as a key innovation within protected cultivation, effectively mitigating climatic stresses such as drought, excessive solar radiation, hail, and frost. By reducing water consumption and reliance on chemical pesticides, they enhance crop quality and yield while promoting sustainable resource management. Beyond environmental benefits, shade houses enable year-round production of high-value crops, increase farm incomes, generate rural employment, and improve economic resilience, helping to reduce rural-to-urban migration. Socially, they foster community cohesion and encourage collective action through agricultural cooperatives and shared resource management. In Iran, the Ministry of Agriculture-jihad has included the Shade House Development Project as part of its national agricultural development plans, with Fars province recognized as one of the leading provinces in implementing this strategy. In Iran, the Ministry of Agriculture-Jihad has integrated the Shade House Development project into national agricultural plans, with Fars province at the forefront of implementation. Therefore, evaluating farmers’ perceptions of the program’s socio-economic and environmental impacts is crucial to ensuring its long-term sustainability, scalability, and successful replication across rural regions.

Materials and Methods
This study was conducted using a descriptive-analytical and survey-based approach. The statistical population consisted of 177 farmers and orchardists participating in the Shade House Development project across selected counties of Fars province, from which a sample of 122 respondents was chosen through simple random sampling based on the Krejcie & Morgan (1970) table. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection, structured around three main dimensions: economic (income, cost, marketing, investment, and agricultural prosperity), social (participation, educational, psychological, social trust, and security), and environmental (biotic and abiotic components). The reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR), while validity was established through face validity, convergent validity (AVE), and discriminant validity via the Fornell-Larcker criterion and cross-loadings. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and SmartPLS 3.3 software, employing both descriptive and inferential statistics, including confirmatory factor analysis, one-sample t-test, and Friedman test.

Results and Discussion
This study evaluates the multidimensional impacts of the Shade House Development Project on rural development in Fars province, Iran, using a one-sample t-test and Friedman test. Findings revealed that farmers' perceptions of the Shade House Development Project were categorized into three main dimensions—economic, social, and environmental—all confirmed to be consistent and reliable. Based on the one-sample t-test results, the economic dimension showed significant improvement, with all indicators (income, cost management, marketing, investment, and agricultural prosperity) scoring above average. Farmers reported increased income and better market access, indicating the project's positive contribution to economic sustainability. In the social dimension, participation and educational components scored positively, reflecting enhanced knowledge sharing and community engagement. However, psychological and social trust indicators scored negatively, suggesting the presence of dissatisfaction, unmet expectations, or lack of transparency in program execution. These findings highlight the importance of local stakeholder involvement and effective communication between planners and beneficiaries. Regarding the environmental dimension, the abiotic component (physical environment) demonstrated favorable outcomes, including reduced temperature stress and improved moisture retention. Conversely, the biotic component (ecological factors) scored below average, showing negative impacts such as increased disease incidence under under the shade house environment. The Friedman test also ranked the economic dimension highest and the social dimension lowest, confirming the relative success of the program in economics but the need for reform in social and environmental domains.

Conclusions
The implementation of the Shade House development project in Fars province has achieved moderate success in the economic dimension, but requires managerial interventions in the social and environmental aspects. To strengthen the program’s sustainability and expand its benefits, recommendations include organizing training workshops, increasing financial support, forming local advisory groups, and adopting sustainable farming practices to improve implementation efficiency and increase farmer participation. This study demonstrates that simultaneous management of socio-economic and environmental challenges is crucial for the successful adoption of of shade house technology as a model of sustainable rual development in other regions of the country.