بیژن ابدی

Lake Urmia is one of the endangered ecosystems in Iran that needs to revivification as soon as possible. The assumption of the research is if farming systems, which interact with such ecosystem, save water; it will be possible to revitalize a part of the lake. To address this issue, this contribution hypothesizes whether the determining factors, which include the environmental NGOs’ effectiveness, the requirement to NGOs’ water interventions, responsibility, indulgence, and perceived behavior control, explain the water conservation behavior (WCB). We selected a representative sample of 368 farmers (N ≈ 23750) using the stratified random sampling method. They were surveyed via the questionnaire. A group of faculty members in the field of agricultural extension and education delivered their recommendations to approve of the face validity of the questionnaire. After performing a pilot study, we used the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Cronbach’s Alpha to assess the reliability of indices in the questionnaire. Using the multiple regression analysis, results indicated that factors, i.e., the perceived behavioral control (the strongest predictor), environmental NGOs’ effectiveness, and the requirement to NGOs’ water interventions could entirely contribute to explain 0.53% of the variance in WCB. Those farmers with the greater behavioral control were more likely to declare less perception toward the environmental NGOs’ effectiveness, and the less perceived need for environmental NGOs’ water interventions. In conclusion, the contribution delivers implications based on the research findings.