Relationships Between Irrigation Systems, Crop Patterns and Land Sizes of Farmers in Coastal Areas in Terms of Agricultural Water Management

Abstract

Population growth and climate change require efficient use of water resources per unit area. In this study, the relationships between irrigation systems, land sizes and crop patterns of farmers in coastal areas were determined to provide useful information for better agricultural water management. A survey study was conducted with 170 farmers determined using the stratified sampling method. The relationship between crop varieties, land sizes and irrigation methods was determined by log-linear model. The farmers were middle-aged with an average 6.5 years of education. The average land size of farmers is 62 acres. Red pepper, watermelon and corn are the most commonly grown crops in the region. The effects of crop variety*irrigation and crop variety*land size interactions were significant (p<0.05), while the effect of land size*irrigation was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The probability for the use of drip irrigation method by the farmers was 7.50 (e2,015) times higher than the sprinkler irrigation method. Drip irrigation is both economically profitable and important for water conservation and is ideal for vegetable crops for better plant growth. Therefore, the government incentives should encourage the use of drip irrigation method by the farmers in the region.