Investigating Fruit Farmers Intention in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Water Resources in Maragheh Township

In recent years due to climate change and water resource mismanagement, the agricultural sector in Iran hase faced with water shortages crisis and one of the important solutions to the water crisis, is improving the water resources management by farmers.This descriptive- correlational study aimed to investigate the intention of fruit farmers in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Water Resources and factors affecting on the intention level of them. Research tool was a researcher made questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by related experts and by conducting a pilot study and calculation of Cronbach's alpha higher than 7.0 for the composition indicators, its reliability was obtained. The statistical population consisted all fruit farmers of Maragheh township (N= 11742) which based on Cochran sampling formula 228 farmers were selected by using multistage randomized sampling method. Data collected by personal interview with fruit farmers in 14 villages and analyzed through software SPSS21.Results showed that, the majority of them (88.9 percent) highly tended to use sustainable management strategies. According to regression analysis, five variables of social trust, educational need, the status of consumed water, the perception of the fruit growers regarding the reduction of water resources and perception of the fruit growers regarding the salinization of water resources explained 55% of their tendency to use of sustainable water resource methods.