Predicting the intention of Iranian farmers to safely use Municipal effluent on the farm: an extended model of the theory of planned behavior

Unlimited use of limited quality Municipal effluent on the farm endangers the health of farmers and consumers of Products irrigated with Municipal effluent. Pollution will be minimized if farmers implement parameters related to the safe use of Municipal effluent, such as the cultivation pattern appropriate to the quality of the effluent, the use of appropriate irrigation methods and the distance between the last irrigation and the effluent to harvest. Therefore, the main idea of this study is to determine the factors affecting the safe use of Municipal effluent on the farm by Iranian farmers. In this regard, the broad theory of planned behavior (TPB) with the addition of risk perception (RP) and knowledge (Kn) as the theoretical framework of the study has been used. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that three sub-components of the main TPB model namely Attitude (Att), Mental Norm (SN) and Perceived Behavior Control (PBC) were statistically significant positive relationships with farmers' Intention of farmers to participate in the safe use of Municipal effluent. In addition, after including the two variables of perception of risk and knowledge as predictors of intent in the developed model of the theory of planned behavior, the predictive power of the model increased. Also, the most important variable in the main TPB model was perceived behavior control, but in the developed TPB model, knowledge was the most important. Therefore, policymakers can promote safe behaviors in the use of Municipal effluent on the farm by emphasizing farmers' knowledge.