A Scale to Analyse the Societal Attitude of Farmers towards Adoption of Scientific Water Efficient Practices in Command Areas

Abstract

Water is an essential yet limited natural resource, vital for sustaining life on Earth. Command areas refer to regions supplied by irrigation systems, such as canal networks or reservoirs, which deliver water to agricultural lands. Effective water management in these regions is crucial for optimizing resources, ensuring fair distribution, and enhancing crop production and productivity. While many scales exist to measure farmers' attitudes, none specifically assess attitudes toward adopting scientific, water-efficient practices in command areas. This study attempts to address this gap by developing and standardizing a scale to evaluate farmers' societal attitudes toward such practices. The resulting scale, which has demonstrated high reliability and validity, consists of 40 statements divided into six categories: (a) maintenance of field channels and distributaries, (b) on-farm water management, (c) water-saving techniques, (d) crop selection and cultivation practices, (e) excess water management techniques, and (f) policy, administration, and extension. An Ex-post facto research design was adopted, and the scale was administered to 40 farmers using a simple random sampling technique in the Tungabhadra command area of Karnataka during the 2023-24 period. Findings reveal that a significant majority of farmers (80%) exhibited attitudes ranging from less favourable to favourable toward scientific water-efficient practices, whereas only one-fourth (20%) displayed a more favourable attitude toward these practices.