Factors Affecting Farmers’ Choice Behaviors To Adopt Water-Saving Irrigation Technology

Water resource,as a special resource,the total amount of that is limited. Water conservation is the lifeblood of social and economic development. With the development of economy and society, the increasing of population growth and demand for water resources, water shortage has become the key issue of constraining socio-economic development and human survival. In 2011, China’s per capita share of water resources is 1730m3, less than a quarter of the world’s per capita possession of water resources, a reduction of one-quarter more than in 2010. Meanwhile, China is a large agricultural country and agricultural water use accounts for about 60% of social total water use, where water for agriculture irrigation accounted for 90%, while the national average utilization coefficient in irrigation water is only about 0.45.In view of the increasing shortage of water resources, it results in adverse effect increasingly in agricultural production,and the development of water-saving irrigation technology has been choosed to ease this pressure. It can improve the utilization of water resources in agriculture, get rid of the water crisis and protect the safety of the food supply.This paper, Coleman rational choice theory, Parsons social action theory and farmer behavior theory for guidance, on the basis of seriously study about existing research, demestic and foreign scholars to water-saving irrigation techniques,using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, explores the factors affecting farmers’choice behavior to water-saving irrigation technology.Firstly, by reading research literature and related information, this paper systematically summarizes domestic relevant aspects about water-saving irrigation technology, learns and understands Coleman rational choice theory, theory of knowledge Parsons social action and farmer behavior theory. Based on macro data provided by Mengyin relevant units, it learns natural geography, socio-economic development and some other related information with water.While, on the basis of analyzing the country, Shandong Province, as well as Mengyin’s water-saving irrigation policies and systems, combining with field research, It comes water-saving irrigation development of the stage and the main problems existing in the development in Mengyin.Secondly,it makes a presentation to the survey sample, survey questionnaire and survey time and place. And for the status quo of water-saving irrigation technology choice behavior in Mengyin,it does descriptive statistical analysis on the survey data of 245 valid questionnaires.And because of the more variable selection behavior factors involved,it uses spss16.0 software to do factor analysis on farmer householdcharacteristics variable and farmers cognitive variables on water-saving irrigation technology.And six common factors were extracted.Again, combining the extracted factors and other affecting factors variables, it uses binary logistic regression analysis. The empirical results show that education of farmers personal characteristics variables, water charging methods of institutional policy features variable, risk perception factors、cognitive factors affecting technology and reducing the cost-saving factor of techniques cognitive effects characteristic variables have a significant impact on farmers irrigation technology choice behaviors.Finally,based on the above analysis and research,the author draw on some conclusions about the promotion and use of water-saving irrigation techniques,and propose a few relevant policy recommendations effective inencouraging farmers to choose water-saving irrigation techniques.