Analysis of effective factors on agricultural water management in Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the factors affecting agricultural water management in Iran based on irrigation experts’ point of view using factor analysis approach. The results indicated that conservation of modern irrigation equipment, promoting farmers’ knowledge, creating a watercourse (surface water collection), imposing a ban on digging new wells and educating the effectiveness of pressurized irrigation system were all known as the most important factors affecting agricultural water management. Moreover, factor analysis results showed that five factors influencing agricultural water management (institutional and legislative, educational and promotional, economic, technical and farming system) explained 64.29% of the total variance. At the end, some policy suggestions were provided in order to improve agricultural water management in Iran.

Keywords

• agriculture
• factor analysis
• Iran
• water management