Measuring acceptance of drought adaptation using theory of reasoned action, case study: farmers of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province

Adaptation to drought is considered as one of the most important approaches in agricultural and watershed management. The purpose of this study is to assess the social acceptance of drought adaptation policies at a regional scale using the reasoned action theory. Information was collected through a questionnaire in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province. The population size was 66019 and the sample size was 382. Samples were distributed according to the proportion to size of regions’ population. In each region, four settlements were selected randomly and the questionnaires were distributed randomly to the farmers. The response rate was 96%. Content validity has been approved by nine experts. Reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by test retest method. The correlation coefficients of the study constructs were confirmed; knowledge (r=0.84), attitude (r=0.91), subjective norm (r=0.87), and behavioral intention (r=0.86). The findings showed that knowledge, attitude, subjective norm and behavioral intention of farmers were at a moderate level, although the level of subjective norm was higher than other components. There were significant correlations between the knowledge and attitude (r=0.72), knowledge and subjective norms (r=-0.62), behavioral intention and subjective norms (r=0.67), income and knowledge (r=0.59), income and subjective norms (r=-0.63), literacy level and behavioral intentions (r=0.74). There were a significant difference between the attitude and subjective norms of farmers who engaged in dry farming and other farmers. Analysis of the findings showed that despite the increasing droughts, adaptation policies have not been seriously accepted by farmers. The level of knowledge and attitude of farmers about drought adaptation were not high and farmers' behavior was influenced by the behavior of other farmers rather than influenced by the policies of the institutions.