Identifying Effective Factors on Irrigation Water Demand at the Farm-Level to Improve use of water

Agriculture as the largest consumer of water، compared to other sectors، is faced with more challenges due to lack of water and the gap between supply and demand for water. The aim of this study is to identify the effective factors on irrigation water demand at farm-level. Data was collected from farmers of Mashhad-Chenaran plain by stratified random sampling method in 2013. The discriminate analysis was used to recognize effective variables on dividing farmers in two groups، low and high water consumption. Result showed that the most important of effective factors to distinguish farmers’ treatment to use of water at farm level are crop، water saving، income of the farmer، soil texture، experience، education level and flow rate of water taken with correlation coefficients 0. 69، 0. 3، 0. 28، -0. 25، -0. 22، 0. 19 and 0. 16 respectively. Also، the results indicated that the value of Lambda Wilkes of discriminant equation to distinguish low and high water used is equal to 0. 61 that is significant at 99% level of probability. According to the results، raising awareness of farmers coupled with increasing facilities to improve water saving technologies and subsidizing for low withdrawal of water from wells، can be useful for efficient use of water، use of assessing tools، control the amount of irrigation water applied in farm and correct implementation of modern irrigation systems in the study area.