Identifying the consequences of water reduction in Zanjan township from the perspective of farmers

AbstractIntroduction: Water is a basic and important resource for human development and economic growth. Water is also important for the agricultural sector. On the one hand, the lack of water and on the other hand, the increase in water demand for different parts of the society, has faced most of the developing countries with a serious and important problem. Water for the agricultural sector is decreasing and scarce every day. Also, with the increase in population, the demand and consumption of water in rural areas and especially in the agricultural sector has increased. Lack of water has caused various problems in different regions. The purpose of this research was to Identifying the consequences of water reduction in Zanjan township from the perspective of farmers with wells.Methods: The current research was a quantitative and applied research. The statistical population of this research was farmers have wells in Zanjan township (N=8017). The sample size was estimated to be 367 people based on Cochran's formula. The sampling method was multi-stage cluster sampling. Data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and researchers in the field of water management and the reliability of the research tool was confirmed by using the pilot tet and calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α = 0.94). Findings: Using the results of exploratory factor analysis, the consequences of water shortage in the rural areas of Zanjan township from the perspective of farmers summarize in six factors including the increase of plant and animal diseases, change of agricultural land use and weakening of villagers financial ability, dryness and reduction of water in fountain and rivers and reduction of pastures and the area under cultivation of agricultural products, the lowering of level of underground water resources and the reduction of the water supply of wells, reducing the incentive to invest in agriculture and increasing soil erosion, water and soil salinity and increasing  disputes and conflict in the village. These six factors were able to explain 63.48 of the total variance of the impacts of water shortage.