CHOOSING AND RANKING IRRIGATION METHODS AND THE STUDY OF EFFECTIVE FACTORS OF ADOPTION IN KHORASAN RAZAVI PROVINCE IN IRAN

摘要

The main objective of this study is ranking sprinkler and traditional irrigation systems in Khorasan Razavi province, determining the best irrigation methods, and finally studying effective factors in the adoption of sprinkler irrigation in this province. Data and information were obtained from 186 questionnaires for farmers of two regions of Khorasan Razavi province; i.e., Mashad and Sabzevar, in 2007. For this purpose, the Compromise Programming method (CP) and Logit model were used. In this study,the results obtained from four groups of farmers and farmlands showed that in two groups of farmers, the best irrigation system is "sprinkler irrigation" (solid-set sprinkler and hand move sprinkler) and in the other groups, the best irrigation system is "traditional irrigation". The results of this study also showed that linier sprinkler and center pivot sprinkler are the worst irrigation systems. The findings also illustrated that farmer's age and number of family labors does not have a significant effect on adoption. Also, land fragmentation, land slope, heterogeneity of soil and access to loan has a positive and significant effect on adoption of sprinkler irrigation. Other variables such as farm size, graduation level, farming as the first job, land slope, heterogeneity of soil and access to loan are factors that have a positive effect on adoption of sprinkler irrigation.