Analyzing Effective Norms on Farmers’ Participatory Behavior toward Water Conservation in Zarivar Wetland Watershed of Marivan County

Concerns about the environment in general and water scarcity in particular have led to the implementation and development of policies aimed at changing the behavior of farmers in the field of water conservation. Many environmental problems are rooted in human behavior and can be solved by understanding human behavior. Thus, the purpose of this descriptive research was to analyze the effects of norms on participatory behaviors of farmers towards water conservation. Statistical population of the study was farm households in central region of Zarivar wetland watershed located in Marivan county (N=2097). Sample size determined using Cochran formula (n=237). Sampling method was multi-stages stratified sampling. Face and content validity of the questionnaire explored and verified by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability coefficients. For data analysis, AMOS and SPSS23 were used. Research findings showed that participatory norms, legal norms, and normative beliefs of farmers had significant positive effects on their participatory behavior towards water conservation. So that normative beliefs (ß= 0.60) and participatory norms (ß= 0.18) had the highest and lowest effects on farmers’ participatory behavior towards water conservation, respectively. These variables could account for about 47 percent of variance of the variable participatory water conservation behavior.