Inhibiting factors on adoption of pressurized irrigation methods according to drought zoning in Northwestern Iran (Ardabil province)

Abstract

In this study was examined the factors affecting the unwillingness to adopt pressurized irrigation methods among farmers' groups (with different levels of drought) in Ardabil province (Iran). Mixed method (Qualitative – Quantitative paradigm) was used for doing this research. First, by drought zoning of Ardabil province (by SPI method and GIS), three regions included the mild, moderate and severe drought levels were selected. In the second stage, using multi-stage cluster sampling from regions with pressurized irrigation methods implemented, non-adopter farmers of pressurized irrigation methods were selected from three regions of study (n= 290). The ordered logistic regression (OLR) (by STATA software) was used to determine the effective and distinctive factors of farmers' groups. The findings showed that 54.5% of farmers had moderate level of unwillingness to adopt pressurized irrigation systems. According to the results of OLR model and marginal effects, farmers in different levels of drought had significant difference in terms of unwillingness to adopt pressurized irrigation systems. Moreover, from among 18 factors of study, only 7 factors of education level, farm income, awareness of pressurized irrigation systems, the effect of local weather conditions, the distrust towards the optimizing of pressurized irrigation systems, non-efficiency of pressurized irrigation methods on farm yield and costs of pressurized irrigation systems were significant and it had been the ability to differentiate among farmers in different levels of drought. This study indicated that improving farm income and awareness of pressurized irrigation systems, compared with other effective factors, create the biggest variations in the probability of placing farmers in different levels of drought.