How do farmers' perceptions and attitudes toward agricultural water consumption behaviors can lead to unsustainability; evidence from Mahabad plain, Lake Urmia, Iran

Abstract

There has been much attention paid to Lake Urmia's catastrophic desiccation by researchers and the government. An in-depth semi-structured interview and thematic analysis were used in this study to examine irrigation behavior and crop type selection decisions. 73% of farmers believe that there is no need to reduce their water consumption, 87% do not look for rain forecasts since they regard the government as responsible for water supply or have very few crop alternatives to choose from. In choosing the type of product, 77% only consider economics and do not consider environmental objectives, and 71% do not think drought conditions affect irrigation decisions. Educating farmers and increasing their collaboration role are therefore necessary. Therefore, these variables are the basis for extending psychological theories such as TPB to predict farmers' behavior to a much greater extent. While this study focused on one region, its findings are applicable to similar circumstances worldwide.

Integrating the norm activation model and theory of planned behaviour to investigate farmer pro-environmental behavioural intention

“…There exist special standards in society that are exerted through social pressures and ingrained in individuals as PN 88 . Therefore, if farmers perceive that pro-environmental behaviors are socially acceptable, they may then feel a personal responsibility to perform those behaviors 43,89 . The next hypothesis was accordingly derived as follows:…”