Document Type : Original Article
Author
Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Extension Division, Department of Socio-Economic Studies, Desert Research Center
Abstract
This study aimed to identify the adoption level of drip irrigation system among farmers in Bahariya Oasis, the relationship between degree of adoption to drip irrigation system and farmers' socioeconomic characteristics, and identify the problems confront farmers’ adopting of drip irrigation system and their suggestions to overcome it. The selected villages of the study were Mendisha, El Zaboa and El Heez as the oldest villages in applying the drip irrigation system, and a simple random sample of about 281 farmers was selected, based on farmers’ records in farmers cooperationsin the three villages. An interview as a questionnaire was utilized to collect data of the study through personal interview in November 2015. Frequencies, mean, percentages and persons' simple correlation coefficient were used to data analysis. Research results showed that 65.5% of farmers have high level of adopting drip irrigation system, while 21.3% of them have moderate level, and 13.2% have low level of adopting drip irrigation system. Results reveal also a significant relationship at the level of 0.01 between farmers' level of adopting to drip irrigation system and the following characteristics: education degree, experience in the agricultural work, monthly income, degree of exposure to the source of agricultural information and attitude toward agricultural innovations. Besides, significant relationship at the level of 0.05 with the following: age and openness degree to civilization. While there was no significant relationship with agricultural area holding.
Main problems confront farmers’ adoption of drip irrigation systemlisted by farmers as follows: the high costs of the adopting the drip irrigation system, together with the absence of subsidy organizations efforts (83.6%), the large farm area demands huge investments to apply adopting the drip irrigation system (75.08%), a sense of unconvincing that the recent system didn't save water, labor and time (65.1%), lack of technicians for applying and maintaining the drip irrigation system (41.6%), lack of relevant equipment among input suppliers in Bahariya Oasis (35.2%) and finally lack of the programs of drip irrigation system in the study area (27.7%). Farmers suggestions can be listed as follows: subsidizing drip irrigation system in the study area (67.1%), providing easy loans to make drip irrigation system available for farmers' (62.9%), providing the trained, skilled labor for fitting and maintaining drip irrigation system (47.7%) and finally the agricultural extension should organize programs to increase farmers' awareness and train them on the technical skills relevant to drip irrigation system application and maintenance (28.4%).
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