Managing water consumption and its determinants among wheat farmers in the Orzuiyeh County

The purpose of this study was to investigate water consumption behavior and its determinants among wheat farmers in the Orzuiyeh county, Kerman province. This study is a descriptive-analytical (correlation type) research that was carried out with the aid of a survey. The statistical population of the study was wheat farmers in the Central district of the county (N= 1350), which 132 farmers were determined as a sample study by using Bartlett and colleague sample size table. The study instrument was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. In order to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted and its reliability was calculated using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.58-0.86). Results revealed that water management behavior with an average of 4.68 revealed that farmers' behavior in terms of water management is fairly favorable and suggests that farmers have actually taken measures to reduce water consumption. The findings also showed that there is no significant relationship between age, education and household size with water management behavior. The results of discriminant analysis indicated that the characteristics of wheat field structure (land area, total cultivation area, wheat area, irrigation method and water supply source) were the most important variables of farmers' water consumption behavior.