Factors Influencing Water Saving Measures and Water-Use Efficiency of Wheat Growers in Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

As the food supplies will have to be increased according to the growing population, water demand will be on the rise in the future. Therefore, improved water consumption patterns must be followed to match future food demands. The paper analyzes the farmer’s adoption of improved irrigation technology to avoid excessive irrigation water use in cultivating crops. In addition, this paper also investigated the factors influencing the water-use efficiency of the farmers. A total of 390 farmers who grew wheat crops were selected from the Naushahro Feroz and Benazirabad districts of Sindh, Pakistan. Socio-economic variables and efficiency scores of the respondents were taken as variables, and both binomial logistic and Tobit regression models were applied.  Results indicated that household head’s experience and formal education have a positive and significant impact on their decision to adopt improved irrigation and their efficiency scores. The elasticities reveal that a 1 % increase in experience of farming possesses the probability of lining the water courses by 23%. Whereas, with the change of 1% in the formal education of respondents, the tendency to laser land leveling changed by 0.1%. In comparison, the distance of the farm from the canal and the area of the farm bears a negative impact on water conserving measures opted by them and their water-use efficiency scores. It was found that proper lining of the water courses, usage of drought tolerant varieties of crops, irrigation technology adoption, and laser land leveling were the measures taken to avoid the excessive use of irrigation water. These measures were found to significantly impact the water-use efficiency scores of sampled farmers.  These findings might be helpful for researchers and policymakers to realize such factors influencing the adoption of farmers and their farm efficiency.