فهرست مطالب l. mohammadzadeh

Farmers’ satisfaction with agricultural water management can be used as a measure of the fairness of water distribution and the performance of an irrigation scheme. Therefore, the assessment of farmers’ satisfaction in this respect could provide useful insights contributing to the sustainable governance of irrigation water. In this study, the population of interest consisted of residents in district of Lajan using the public irrigation network in Piranshahr Township, Iran. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s table and following a simple random sampling method, 110 individuals were selected as the research sample. Questionnaire [based on the European Performance Satisfaction Index (EPSI)] was the main tool for data gathering. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by a panel of experts. To assess its reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was calculated for the main scales of the questionnaire (α= 0.74 to 0.86). According to the obtained data, the main factors influencing farmers’ satisfaction included the perceived image of irrigation governance, expectations of farmers from irrigation governance, and the perceived quality and value of irrigation. According to the results, farmers believed that irrigation management by the government was a solution for reducing local conflicts in relation to agricultural water use and justice in the distribution of irrigation water. However, they were not satisfied with the irrigation scheme governance.

Agricultural land use change is one of the main environmental challenges facing the world today. Among various types of economic sectors, agriculture is one of the most sensitive economic sectors in terms of agricultural land use changes. Therefore, agricultural land management can be very influential in agricultural development. Due to the importance of possible effects of farmers’ behavior on agricultural land use changes, the main purpose of present study was to identify the factors influencing farmers' behavior on agricultural land use change in the area of south basin of Urmia lake using discriminant analysis. For conducting this research a survey method has been used. The research statistical population were the all farmers in the south basin of Lake Urmia. Out of them 153 farmers were selected as a sample by a random sampling method. The sample size estimated using Cochran formula. The instrument for collecting data was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α=0.74). Results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed that according to categorizing variables age, participation in educational-extensional training courses, and the size of agricultural lands, there was significant differences in the respondents' behavior towards agricultural land use changes in the south basin of Lake Urmia. However, in terms of level of education, there was no significant difference in the behavior of the respondents. Also, the findings of discriminant analysis showed that among the variables studied, economic, supervisory, and managerial factors had the most powerful impacts, respectively; and participation in educational-extensional training courses had the lowest impact on the farmers' behavior. Based on these results, the authorities of rural and agricultural sectors recommended to pave the way for development of handicrafts and various rural products including agricultural and livestock processing by attracting funds. As a result, farmers and their families can have a supplementary income for household expenses.