Farmers’ participatory-based water conservation behaviors: evidence from Iran

In recent years, Iran has been increasingly faced with severe water scarcity. In this regard, participation of farmers in water conservation activities is proposed as one of the major solutions to this problem. Despite extensive efforts to encourage water conservation activities among Iranian farmers, there are still no thorough knowledge and understanding of the determinants of their participatory-based water conservation behaviors (PBWCB). Accordingly, the present study makes an attempt to develop an appropriate theoretical framework using the norm activation theory (NAT) to analyze farmers’ PBWCB. For this purpose, a sample of 378 Iranian farmers is selected using stratified random sampling method. The results show that the variable of personal norms (as the main predictor of behavior in NAT) could predict a significant percentage (55.7%) of the variance in PBWCB. In addition, other variables, including ascription of responsibility, subjective norms, perceived ability, and awareness of consequences, explained 47.8% of its variance as the main determinants of personal moral/norms. Analysis of the total effects of three water conservation values (egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric values) also revealed that farmers’ PBWCBs are mostly affected by their underlying values. A number of practical recommendations were finally presented to facilitate the implications of the study results for water resource managers, policy-makers, and executives in relevant organizations. Graphic abstract