Analysis of Psychological Factors Affecting Farmers’ Behavior in Using Low-pressure Irrigation System in the East Azarbaijan Province

One of the main mechanisms in optimizing water consumption management is the use of related technologies to achieve high productivity level. In recent years, low-pressure irrigation system has been considered as one of the new methods to improve efficiency of surface irrigation. This study aimed to analyze the psychological factors affecting farmers' behavior in using low-pressure irrigation system. This qualitative study is performed in East Azarbaijan province. The statistical sample population consists of 393 farmers out of 112010 farmers of East Azarbaijan province. This seems to be a sufficient sample of farmers due to the use of Cochran's formula and multi-stage sampling method. The SPSS version 20 and AMOS version 21 were used to analyze the data. The results of using structural equation modeling showed that the variables of attitude, self-efficacy, mental norms and behavioral control were explained 57% of the variance changes. The variable of ethical norms has been a stronger predictor of the tendency to use low-pressure irrigation.