An Analysis of Key Drivers of Agricultural Water Resources Governance (Case study: Tarom County, Iran)

Many regions in Iran, are facing significant stagnation of natural resources, including access to sufficient and sustainable water, and its adverse consequences have appeared in many sustainability indicators of these regions. Good governance is commonly recognized as the most important initiative for addressing the agricultural water shortage in the country. Thus, it is crucially important to examine the priority area of interventions for the realization of water governance. With this in mind, this research is conducted to identify the key factors and driving forces of agriculture water governance in Tarom County in Iran. The required data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 29 managers and experts in agriculture, environmental protection, and rural water supply and sewerage departments and were coded and analyzed using MAXQDA software. Then, the interaction of identifies key factors was examined by pairwise comparison questionnaires filled by 12 experts and managers and analyzed with MICMAC Software. The findings revile that, the governance of agricultural water resources in Tarom city is unstable and the facilitation of stakeholder’s participation and, decentralization and delegation of authority to the local level are two main driving forces for the realization of water governance in the region. Furthermore, improving the irrigation water efficiency, formulation of appropriate regulatory policies in water supply and demand sections, as well as proper management of surface and groundwater are identified and recommendable as the key goals for improving agriculture water governance.