Factors Affecting the Adoption of Water and Soil Conservation Activities in Firoozabad Plain

Water is a gradually scarce resource. This growing scarcity turns out to be even more substantial in climate change condition. On the other hand, erosion is a challenging problem not only since it leads to productivity losses, but also because it is related to desertification and rural poverty. As a consequence, conserving both water and soil are two of the most vital issues in water-constrained region such as Firoozabad plain. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of challenges surrounding the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices, this study investigates the impacts of economic, social, human, and financial variables as well as those of the individual properties of farmers on the adoption of SWC as a joint decision, using a Seemingly Unrelated Bivariate Probit Regression (SUBPR) model. Socioeconomic and production information were collected on a sample of 204 farms randomly selected in 8 villages. The result of diagonality test indicated that the residual terms of the two equations are correlated, which leads support to the use of the SUBPR model. In other words, SWC is a joint decision. Result also showed that 43.6% of farmers adopt water conservation, 44.1% adopt soil conservation and 24% adopt both. In the water equation, age, farm size, off-farm activities and access to credit, have positive and significant effects on the likelihood of adopting conservation. In contrast, family size and the number of land plots have negative and significant influences on adoption. In the soil equation, educations, farm size, family numbers working on farm and crop rotation have positive and significant effects on adoption. In contrast, Family size has a negative and significant influence. Finally, the result obtained from the equation for the case of joint adoption showed that farm size, education, access to credit, off-farm activities and family members working on-farm are important variables associated with the adoption of conservation measures. The findings of this study could help to improve the understanding of farmers’ behavior regarding conservation, and thus help the development of incentives and instruments focusing on soil and water programs.