Agricultural Water Management Basis and Mechanisms in Tabriz Plain

Water is the main stimulus factor for farming in the world. In spite of the limitation of the water resources in most areas، reports claim that agricultural activities allocates 70 percent of the used water on the world; therefore، the top responsible people in this economic field should consider finding ways and methods of adjusting and utilizing water consumption. Quite obviously، being well aware of the problems of water resources management and presenting the effective solutions may be an effective step forward to improve the management of water resources and consequently develops sustainable agriculture. For this purpose، the basis and mechanism of agricultural water management in Tabriz plain as one of the most important areas of farming in East Azarbaijan is being studied. In this study، first problems and effective factors in agricultural water management were classified. At the second stage، management indices of agricultural water were recognized. To reduce the number of indices smaller than the fundamental mechanisms and effective indices، factor analysis has been used. According to experts opinion، the imbalance between the operating wells and the area of the fields under cultivation، salinity of the groundwater due to irregular usage of this resource and drawdown of groundwater are known as the first three prior problems of agricultural water management of the region. Also، according to the viewpoints of the farmers، drawdown of groundwater، unawareness of the farmers of the importance of the groundwater and reduction of average discharge of the wells are the first three prior problems of the agricultural water management in the region. The results indicated that 61 percent of the variance of the total water management indices has been defined by factors of surface and ground water. Therefore، reducing water extracted from the wells and optimum use of surface water for extending irrigated farms will be effective in water resources management of the region.