An Empirical Investigation of Farmers’ Awareness and Behavior in the Sense of Water Scarcity Toward Participatory Management

• Published in: Iranian journal of science and technology. Transactions of civil engineering 2022-12, Vol.46 (6), p.4619-4650
• Main Authors: Gazal, Osama “Moh’d Najeeb”, Eslamian, Saeid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Civil Engineering; Drought; Engineering; Exploitation; Farmers; Farms; Fertilizers; Groundwater; Irrigated lands; Refugees; Research Paper; Water scarcity; Water shortages
• ISSN: 2228-6160; 2364-1843
• DOI: 10.1007/s40996-022-00894-x

Attributed to a combination of factors linked to the disproportionate use of groundwater in agriculture, groundwater degradation has become increasingly a serious problem, in areas where water and fertilizer are used extensively without awareness and competent authorities’ control. In this study, the emphasis will be on the necessity of integrated participatory management, through Jordan as an example where groundwater over-exploitation has been on the increase with the presence of perennial severe water shortages, compounded by drought conditions, fluxes of refugee and agricultural activities expansion. And since agriculture consumes the most water, semi-structured interviews with 26 farmers were conducted in spring 2021 to assess farmer awareness and trends, and approximately 199 farms were investigated by a questionnaire survey distributed by convenience random method in autumn 2021. The assessment indicates a high level of awareness, reflecting a good level of education among wells owners, while the general trend is unpromising as the majority want to expand irrigated land, dig more wells, and have more fertilizers mixing ponds. In other words, the farmers are unable to have rescue operational plans or alternatives to change the current situation and to cooperate with government attempts to reduce the deterioration.