Abstract

Climate change and recent drought combined with the high use of groundwater resources by the agricultural sector, has led to a major water crisis in Iran. In this conditioin, farmers should use optimal water management techniques. Effective planning and action in this field requires better understanding of the factors affecting farmers  behavior. In the present study, using a descriptive-correlation method, this issue was investigated among the fruit farmers. The statistical population of the study was all the fruit farmers in Maragheh Township (11742 people). According to the Cochran sampling formula and using randomized multistage sampling method, 228 of the fruit farmers were selected and studied. The majority of apple gardens in Maragheh, are located in the Urmia lake basin, and the fruit farmers of this Township, produce an important part of the apple of the province and the country. The tool used to collect data was a questionnaire whose content validity was confirmed by experts in this field. A preliminary study was carried out on 30 fruit farmers and Cronbachs alpha of 0.85 was obtained. The results of this study showed that the majority of fruit farmers (97.7%) used the optimal water resources management methods at moderate level. Multiple regression analysis showed that variables such as level of educational needs, amount of water consumed, age, amount of information received from mass media, total area of the garden and fruit farmer s s perception of reducing water resources explained 30% of changes in the level of use of optimal water resources management methods.