Farmers’ Attitude Determining Factors towards Water Resources Sustainable Management (Case study: Komijan County)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 University of Zanjan

2 Department of Agricultural Extension, Communication and Rural Development, University of Zanjan

3 Department of Agricultural Management, University of Tehran

Abstract

Given the importance of water resources as a key element in all sub-sectors of the economy, especially agriculture and at the same time,due to severe constraints and lack of the resources, it is inevitable to move towards sustainable management of water resources. In this respect, various scholars believe that the mental and psychological factors, particularly attitude are the main factors leading people to implementation of actions related to sustainable management of water resources. Regarding the importance of the issue, the main objective of this research was to study of factors determining the farmers’ attitude towards sustainable management of water resources. The statistical population of the research consisted of all farmers’ heads of household in Komijan County (N= 5100). According to the Bartlett et al. (2001) Table, 300 of them were selected by multistage sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire which its content validity confirmed by a panel of experts. A pilot study conducted to establish the reliability of the questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire were at appropriate levels (ranged from 0.628 to 0.812). The results indicated that nearly half of the farmers were undecided towards sustainable management of water resources. According to results, variables of farmers' perception towards problems of sustainable water management, participating in the extension programs and activities and the volume of water storage ponds were the main factors determining the farmers’ attitude towards sustainable management of water resources in Komijan County. Furthermore, the results showed that there was a significant difference between the farmers’ attitude towards sustainable management of water resources in terms of type of water resource ownership, so that the farmers with private ownership had a more favorable attitude compared with farmers who had joint ownership.

Keywords


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