Consistency between the components of irrigation behavior of farmers in Fayoum governorate

This research mainly aims to identify consistency between the components of farmers’ irrigation behavior in the field of irrigation water rationalization. This goal was achieved by achieving the following sub-objectives: determining the level of farmers’ knowledge and implementation of irrigation water rationalization practices and identifying the level of respondents’ awareness of the importance of rationalization practices. Irrigation water, identifying the extent of consistency between the three behavioral components of knowledge, attitude, and practice towards rationalizing irrigation water, identifying the obstacles facing respondents in the field of rationalizing irrigation water, and identifying indicators of cognitive capacity in the field of rationalizing irrigation water consumption.
Twelve villages were chosen to represent all the administrative centers in the Fayoum Governorate. They are the villages of (Damo, Hojmin, and Al-Jumhuriya) on the Wahbi Sea, the villages of (Qalamshah, Al-Gharqa Bahri, and Al-Mahmoudiyah) on the Sea of Al-Gharqa, and the villages of (Al-Azab, Al-Wanaisa, and Kahk) on the Nazla Sea. And the villages of (Zawiyat al-Karadisa, Naqalifah, and Kafr Fazara) on the Zawiya Sea. The owners of those villages totaled 16,732 farmers, and since it was difficult to collect research data from this total number, it was decided to choose a systematic random sample of them that was estimated using the Krejci and Morgan equation (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970, p, 608), according to the formula, it consisted of 375 respondents. The sample items were distributed among the study villages in the same proportion as their presence in the whole, and 14 agricultural research and service agencies and institutions were chosen to cover the knowledge capacity at the level of the study area, which are: The College of Agriculture (Land and Water Department, Community Service and Environmental Development Agency), the Agricultural Extension Service, the Irrigation Directorate, the irrigation links (4 links at a rate of one link per sea), and the agricultural departments in each center (6 departments).
The most important results were that: Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (65.6%) had neutral attitudes toward rationalizing irrigation water, compared to only 28.5% of them whose attitudes were positive toward rationalizing irrigation water. The results showed that more than nearly two-thirds of the respondents (65 6%) Their level of knowledge is average about irrigation water rationalization practices, compared to only 21.3% of whom had a high level of knowledge about those practices, and that the level of respondents’ application of irrigation water rationalization practices was moderate or low, as this was mentioned by 48.5%, and 31.2% for each of them, respectively, while the percentage of respondents with a high level of application of these practices was only 20.3% of the total respondents.