Abstract:
The purpose of this paper was to determine the fact
ors affecting farmers’ satisfaction
from Water Users Associations (WUAs) in the Harran
Plain-Turkey. The data used in
this study come from a sample of 378 farmers among
23,204 in the
Ş
anlıurfa-Harran
Plain. They were chosen via simple random sampling
method and interviewed face to
face. Sampling was conducted in 52% of the settleme
nts. To analyze the collected survey
data, SPSS 15 was used together with Kruskal Wallis,
Mann-Whitney, Pearson
Chi
-
square and the correlation tests. The results indic
ated the existence of relationship
between satisfaction and education levels, knowledg
e level about WUA, and status of
ownership, land area, age, farming experiences, inc
ome, and service quality given by
WUAs. These factors significantly explained satisfa
ction of farmers. The average of
variables’ highest satisfaction was calculated as 4
7.4%. The highest satisfaction was
68.5% and belonged to the status of ownership; the
lowest one was 28.3% in the case of
farming experiences. The managers of WUAs should be
concentrating on these factors in
order to increase satisfaction and provide training
and information for farmers.
Keywords:
Agricultural irrigations, Participation, Sustainab
ility status of ownership, Water
management, WUA.
