Analyzing the Farmers’ Professional Competencies Needed against Climate Change; The Case Study of Southern Basin of Urmia Lake

Climate change phenomenon is one of the most important challenges of the present century. For this reason, there has been a great deal of research in the field of the environment, agriculture, and factors affecting it in recent decades. In the meantime, understanding farmers' behavior on climate change and understanding their perspective on the future can help to better solve the problem. In this regard, the main purpose of the present study is to identify the professional competencies needed by farmers against climate change. The statistical population of this study included all the agricultural users of the southern basin of Urmia Lake. One hundred and fifty-three individuals were selected as the sample in two stages (cluster sampling and simple random sampling). The main research instrument was a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results of climate change analysis showed that during the past three decades, the average temperature and mean maximum temperature in the southern basin of Urmia Lake increased by 1.8 and 3.5 °C, respectively. Also, the mean minimum temperature, mean precipitation, and air humidity decreased by 1.3 °C, 10.3 mm and 5%, respectively. According to the findings of the Borich Model, 29 professional competencies scored higher than 4. In other words, these results indicated the shortage or weakness of individuals in 29 professionals. Therefore, the focus of stakeholders and planners should be on strengthening and upgrading them to tackle climate change. In the meantime, consulting with experts, selecting the irrigation program according to rainfall and temperature data, as well as changing the way the land is prepared for planting have the highest scores compared to the other 29 competencies and are in higher priority for training and empowerment. The results of paired T test showed that there is a significant difference between the desired and the current situations.