The Role of Water Resources Management in Agricultural Development of Tabriz Plain

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 M.Sc. Student, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Water is one of the most valuable natural resources in human societies which is demanded by different parts of the society, and as one of the main inputs of production in agriculture has a special role in the agricultural sustainable development. Nowadays, the consumption of water is more than the supply, and its highest consumption is in agriculture. This study scrutinized the role of management of agricultural water in agricultural development. In order to prevent from generalization and to achieve exact and applicable results, Tabriz Plain as one of the most important areas of agriculture in East Azarbaijan has been chosen and canonical correlation has been used. Thereafter, initially to reduce the number of indices to the fundamental mechanism and effective indices, factor analysis has been used and the elements achieved from this analysis have been used as the input in the canonical correlation analysis. The results indicated that 32.35 percent of the variance of the total water management indices has been defined by three canonical variables of agricultural development. Also, the three canonical variables of water management are capable to declare 43.32 percent of the variance of the total indices of agricultural development. According to the results, there is a bilateral relationship between water resources management and agricultural development. Hence, considering importance of the underground water resources in agricultural development, it is necessary to act sustainable indices of water usage in development planning. 

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