Relationship between Indigenous Knowledge Development in Agriculture and the Sustainability of Water Resources

Ali Sardar Shahraki, Thomas Panagopoulos (), Hajar Esna Ashari and Ommolbanin Bazrafshan
Additional contact information
Ali Sardar Shahraki: Department of Agriculture Economics, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan 9816745785, Iran
Thomas Panagopoulos: Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8000 Faro, Portugal
Hajar Esna Ashari: Department of Agriculture Economics, University of Jiroft, Jiroft 7867161167, Iran
Ommolbanin Bazrafshan: Department of Natural Resources Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas 7916193145, Iran

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: The relationship between agricultural knowledge and water management is very important. Indigenous knowledge in agriculture can improve the water crisis situation and alleviate water stress from dry and semi-arid areas. Therefore, the combination of these two impacts can improve the agricultural sector and reduce the effects of drought. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting indigenous knowledge and the sustainable management of water resources for optimal water use in agriculture in the Sistan region of Iran. Alongside field research and interviews with 40 indigenous experts and experts from the Jihad-e-Agriculture sector of the Sistan region, the required information was collected by means of a questionnaire. Using the fuzzy hierarchy process (FAHP), the factors affecting indigenous knowledge and the sustainable management of water resources for optimal water use in the Sistan region were ranked. The final rankings of the factors influencing indigenous knowledge for optimal agricultural use of water resources indicate that the educational-extensional factor, with a final weight of 0.37, is the first priority, while social factors, government support, economics, farmers’ knowledge, and information, with weights of 0.24, 0.21, 0.13, and 0.03, respectively, are the next priorities. It is recommended that the indigenous knowledge of local authorities be augmented, and that farmers be encouraged to use modern irrigation techniques to optimize the agricultural irrigation of water.

Keywords: indigenous knowledge; sustainable water resources management; optimal consumption; fuzzy hierarchy technique (FAHP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/5665/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/5665/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:7:p:5665-:d:1105751

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().