بررسی رضایتمندی باغداران نسبت به تسهیلات بلاعوض آبیاری قطره‌ای در شهرستان زنجان

Extended abstract



Introduction

Recently, due to the necessity of optimal utilization of water resources in agriculture, drip irrigation systems, which are the most efficient irrigation methods, have been of great importance. Iran’s government considers special facilities to develop these technologies annually. Despite the supportive programs, the operation of new irrigation systems is relatively low. This can be caused by problems that occur while receiving facilities. The awareness of client satisfaction is undoubtedly an essential aspect of the development and continuation of new technology in agriculture. This research investigated the factors affecting the gardeners' satisfaction with government grants for implementing drip irrigation systems in gardens.



Methodology

This study is based on a quantitative survey with a descriptive correlation method. The statistical population included 142 gardeners who had received facilities for drip irrigation from 2017 to 2023 in Zanjan County of Zanjan Province in the Northwest of Iran. Based on Krejcie and Morgan’s table and using the stratified random sampling technique, 104 gardeners were selected as the study sample. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was reviewed by a group of faculty members, specialists, and experts in water and agricultural credit. A pre-test was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also calculated for different questionnaire parts (α=0.919 - 0.966).



Results and discussion

According to the results, the overall satisfaction of the studied gardeners with the process of drip irrigation facility was below average (2.7). The results of grouping gardeners based on the level of satisfaction were 40.3% (relatively satisfied), 30.8% (relatively dissatisfied), 15.4% (dissatisfied) and 13.5% (satisfied). The results of the comparison of the level of satisfaction with the facility between different groups of studied gardeners in terms of water source ownership, the experience of participating in new irrigation training courses, location of the garden, and type of ownership of the garden, place of residence, field of main occupation, and membership in organizations showed significant differences. In other words, Gardeners who have experience participating in training courses related to new irrigation systems, the type of ownership of their garden is private, and the type of ownership of the water source of their garden is shared, their main occupation is agriculture, their residency place is the village, and those who are members of social and rural organizations; are more satisfied than others. Correlation results indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between the satisfaction level and garden age, garden area, and drip irrigation area, and there is also a significant positive relationship between satisfaction and the history of using pressurized irrigation, social-communicative characteristics, and educational-informational characteristics. The results of categorizing the benefits of using drip irrigation in gardens with exploratory factor analysis led to the identification of three categories of benefits as reducing production costs and improving the efficiency of using production resources, quantitative and qualitative improvement of production and increasing income, and improved time management and irrigation water consumption; that these factors explained 75.81% of the total variance. Based on the results of the regression analysis (R2adj=0.35), the four variables, including educational-informational features, the advantage of reducing production costs and improving the efficiency of production resources, garden area, and the advantage of improving time management and irrigation water consumption, explain 35 % of the variation in gardeners' satisfaction with facilities.

In line with the results of this research, the results of Charmchian Langerodi & Janbaz (2018) and Chovatia et al. (2019) studies also indicate that gardeners are less satisfied with the time of receiving facilities and installing the irrigation system. Hoseinpour et al. (2023) also showed that drip irrigation system users have expressed dissatisfaction with the low quality and high cost of irrigation equipment, the administrative bureaucracy, and the complex process of obtaining facilities. In accordance with Charmchian Langerodi and Janbaz's (2018) findings, for gardeners, the benefits of using pressurized irrigation systems, such as the decrease in labor costs, are more important than the increase in production and income. Charmchian Langerodi and Janbaz (2018) also showed that educational and promotional factors explain the gardeners' satisfaction with irrigation facilities. Furthermore, the study of Aazami et al. (2011) showed that the economic characteristics of farmers, such as land ownership status, affected the level of satisfaction of users of pressurized irrigation systems through facilities. So that people whose land was under private ownership were more satisfied.







Conclusion

Considering the results of the study of the personal, occupational, social-communicational, educational-informational characteristics of gardeners, as well as their perception of the benefits of using drip irrigation systems and examining the relationship and impact of these variables on their satisfaction with these facilities, a general view of the current situation in terms of satisfaction with the process of this type of facility was obtained. These results, in line with the assessments of the modern irrigation systems development plan at the macro level, can contribute to the flexibility and modification of future implementation guidelines of this plan conforming with the regional conditions and the characteristics of the facility applicants and accelerate the trend of developing modern irrigation systems aligned with the upstream documents.