Determinants of Stakeholder's Attitudes Towards Use of Water Desalination Plant In Agriculture in Bushehr Province, Iran

Bushehr province has experienced an exceptional drought in the past few years. As a result, water has become extremely scarce. Use of desalination plant technology is a way of coping with agricultural drought. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of stakeholders’ attitude toward using desalination plant to provide water for agriculture in Bushehr province. A questionnaire based survey was used for assessing the attitudes. The face and content validity of questionnaire was confirmed by experts and Cronbach’s alpha test revealed the reliability of the instruments used in the study. Hierarchical regression was used for assessing farmers’ attitude towards acceptance of desalination plant. Variables that entered the regression model, predicted more than 69 percent of farmers’ attitude toward use of desalination plant. Water resources, perception of advantages of water desalination plant, and social norms were the most important predictors of attitude toward water desalination plant. Discriminant analysis used for explanation the experts’ tendencies to diffuse the desalination plant. The model had the ability to classify (correctly classified 91 percent of the cases) experts based on their tendencies toward promotion of water desalination plant.