Factors Affecting Adoption of Modern Irrigation Technology by Farmers (The Case of Behbahan Township)

Nowadays, water scarcity has become a concern in Iran, and agriculture, in particular, appears to be at the core of the water shortage problem. The results of various studies state that a large part of water waste is in the route of water transmission to the fields. Thus, it is essential to optimize the consumption of water by using modern irrigation technologies. The main purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the Adoption of modern irrigation technology in Behbahan township. This research was applied research and a descriptive- survey method was used for collecting data. Statistical population of the study consisted of adopters and non-adopters farmers of modern irrigation technology in Behbahan township. The total number of adopters of new irrigation technologies included 174 farmers who were selected by census and among of non-adopters farmers whose their lands were in the neighborhood of adopters by random sampling method were selected. The standard questionnaire was used to collect data. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of faculty members. A pilot study was conducted to establish reliability of the instrument. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire were at the appropriate level. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS20 software. The results showed that the discriminant function derived from three models of diffusion, economic constraints and combination model could categorize adopters and non- adopters of modern irrigation technology distance to agricultural services center variable in economic constraints model and farmers’ age variable in combination and diffusion models are the most important distinctive variables between adopters and non-adopters groups. Also, the finding indicated that combination model has a higher ability in classification of adopters and non- adopters of modern irrigation technology.