Factors Affecting the Tendency of Iranian Farmers to Use Pressurized Irrigation Systems

Using pressurized irrigation systems are one of the best ways to solve the problem of water scarcity in the agricultural sector, but their use by Iranian farmers is much less than expected. The main purpose of this study is the investigation of factors affecting the farmers' tendency to use these systems in Iran.  This research is causal-comparative. The geographical area is all provinces of Iran. Statistical population is model farmers. The sample size has been calculated by Cochran’s test and the number of people are 331. The sampling method is stratification and people in each group have been randomly selected. The independent variables of research are distinguished farmers, government supports, attitude, self-efficacy, water scarcity, technological features and personal characteristics. The path analysis statistical method and SPSS20 have been used to analyze the data. The results show that attitude variable has the highest impact on farmers' tendency (β= 0/549) and self-sufficiency and water scarcity are in the next order. In addition, it has been found that personal characteristics do not have effect on the tendency of farmers to use these systems (β= -0/001). Based on these results strengthening and developing the educational and extensional activities in the country to improve the attitude and self-efficacy of farmers as well as increase their knowledge and skills in using pressurized irrigation systems are suggested.