Identifying the optimal strategies for managing agricultural water resources small-scale farmers (Case study of Darzab village, Mashhad County)

The significant depletion of renewable water resources has shifted the focus of management approaches from supply management to demand management in most parts of the world. Accordingly, the present study seeks to identify the best strategies for proper management of water resources from the perspective of farmers at micro level. The research method was descriptive-analytical and two SWOT-QSPM strategic management tools were used. The unit of analysis was 96 smallholder farmers in 10 villages of Darzab rural district of Mashhad during the year 1977 who completed the questionnaire through snowball sampling. Based on exploratory studies, 7 strengths and opportunities were identified as advantages and 26 weaknesses and threats as constraints and bottlenecks facing water resources management of smallholder farmers. And, EFE = 1.66, optimal (minimum-minimum) defensive strategies were identified to improve water resource management. Among the 7 defense strategies presented in the QSPM model, the most important strategy was "formulating the right policies to increase water productivity" with a score of 3.43.