Different Factors Influencing the Farmer's Willingness to Participate in Water User Associations of Golestan Province

This descriptive- correlative study aims at examining and analyzing the factors influencing the extent of farmers’ willingness to participate in water user associations. The statistical society includes all the member farmers in the water user associations of the Golestan province. The study is done through a questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were approved earlier. According to Cochran formula, 190 individuals are randomly selected in a clustered sampling method; and finally, 186 completed questionnaires are analyzed. Study results indicate that the farmers’ personal-occupational, economic, educational-extension characteristic and also their attitudes toward the water user associations are significantly related to these farmers’ willingness to participate in such associations. Moreover, as shown by the results of regression analysis, the variables of “farm distances to agricultural service centers”, “attitudes toward the water user associations”, “amount of paid water price”, “extent of extension contacts”, “duration of the farmers’ membership in these associations” and “annual non-farm incomes” totally explain some 68 percent of the variations in “farmers’ willingness to participate in the water user associations”.