Governance of Agricultural Water Management: How Does the EPSI Model Explain Iranian Farmers' Satisfaction? An Experience from Northwestern Iran

Farmers’ satisfaction with agricultural water management can be used as a measure of the fairness of water distribution and the performance of an irrigation scheme. Therefore, the assessment of farmers’ satisfaction in this respect could provide useful insights contributing to the sustainable governance of irrigation water. In this study, the population of interest consisted of residents in district of Lajan using the public irrigation network in Piranshahr Township, Iran. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s table and following a simple random sampling method, 110 individuals were selected as the research sample. Questionnaire [based on the European Performance Satisfaction Index (EPSI)] was the main tool for data gathering. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by a panel of experts. To assess its reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was calculated for the main scales of the questionnaire (α= 0.74 to 0.86). According to the obtained data, the main factors influencing farmers’ satisfaction included the perceived image of irrigation governance, expectations of farmers from irrigation governance, and the perceived quality and value of irrigation. According to the results, farmers believed that irrigation management by the government was a solution for reducing local conflicts in relation to agricultural water use and justice in the distribution of irrigation water. However, they were not satisfied with the irrigation scheme governance.