Pro-Environmental Analysis of Farmer's Participatory Behavior toward Conservation of Surface Water Resources in Southern Sector of Urmia Lake's Catchment Area

Recent droughts and consequently water scarcity and also mismanagement toward exploitation of water resources in Urmia Lake’s catchment area have caused numerous environmental problems. Pro-environmental analysis of farmer's participatory behavior toward conservation of surface water resources in southern part of Urmia Lake’s catchment area was the main purpose of this study. This study is a "descriptive and causalcorrelative" research that was conducted using survey technique as a research method. The statistical population was farmers in southern part of Urmia Lake's catchment area (N= 23750) that 378 farmers were selected as a sample using Krejcie and Morgan sample size Table and stratified random sampling method. The research tool was a questionnaire which its validity confirmed by a panel of agricultural extension and education specialists and its item's reliability were confirmed using a pilot test and calculating Cronbach's Alpha test (0.70≤ ≤0.90). One Way ANOVA analysis showed that there are a significant difference among three groups of farmers with biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic pro-environmental values regarding participatory behavior toward conservation of surface water resources and farmers who had biospheric and egoistic values had higher and lower participatory behavior respectively. Casual analysis results revealed that participation norms have the highest effect on farmers’ participatory behavior ( 0.583).