Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy
In a global situation where water constraints are a daily concern and expected to worsen in the upcoming years, finding new water alternatives to guarantee its supply is of critical importance. Against this background, reclaimed water has proved to be a sustainable alternative that recycles wastewat...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13304 |
| _version_ | 1789406719362727936 |
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| author | López Serrano, María José Velasco Muñoz, Juan Francisco Aznar Sánchez, José Ángel Román Sánchez, Isabel María |
| author_facet | López Serrano, María José Velasco Muñoz, Juan Francisco Aznar Sánchez, José Ángel Román Sánchez, Isabel María |
| author_sort | López Serrano, María José |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | In a global situation where water constraints are a daily concern and expected to worsen in the upcoming years, finding new water alternatives to guarantee its supply is of critical importance. Against this background, reclaimed water has proved to be a sustainable alternative that recycles wastewater from a circular economy approach, thus enhancing water availability for key sectors such as agriculture. In such a context where public policies should encourage the implementation of this sustainable resource that helps reduce climate change by allowing wastewater reuse, there is too often a lack of knowledge of farmers’ perceptions, thus resulting in them being ineffective. In this sense, studying and analyzing agriculturalists’ perceptions is of interest for the development of appropriate policies that truly foster reclaimed water use in agriculture and enhance its shift from waste to resource. For this research 231 farmers, both long-time users of reclaimed water and non-users, were surveyed to find common and differing attitudes and perceptions. Results show how once farmers start irrigating their crops with this alternative resource there is a marked improvement in their opinion. The high price is the most widespread barrier, which can be tempered with public subsidies that absorb part of this cost. The insights obtained from this research may be of interest to other regions, especially for those in arid and semi-arid climates where water scarcity is a critical problem and sustainability a growing concern. |
| format | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| id | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-13304 |
| institution | Universidad de Cuenca |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-133042023-11-03T10:08:03Z Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy López Serrano, María José Velasco Muñoz, Juan Francisco Aznar Sánchez, José Ángel Román Sánchez, Isabel María reclaimed water tertiary water treated wastewater circular economy sustainable agriculture perceptions farmers In a global situation where water constraints are a daily concern and expected to worsen in the upcoming years, finding new water alternatives to guarantee its supply is of critical importance. Against this background, reclaimed water has proved to be a sustainable alternative that recycles wastewater from a circular economy approach, thus enhancing water availability for key sectors such as agriculture. In such a context where public policies should encourage the implementation of this sustainable resource that helps reduce climate change by allowing wastewater reuse, there is too often a lack of knowledge of farmers’ perceptions, thus resulting in them being ineffective. In this sense, studying and analyzing agriculturalists’ perceptions is of interest for the development of appropriate policies that truly foster reclaimed water use in agriculture and enhance its shift from waste to resource. For this research 231 farmers, both long-time users of reclaimed water and non-users, were surveyed to find common and differing attitudes and perceptions. Results show how once farmers start irrigating their crops with this alternative resource there is a marked improvement in their opinion. The high price is the most widespread barrier, which can be tempered with public subsidies that absorb part of this cost. The insights obtained from this research may be of interest to other regions, especially for those in arid and semi-arid climates where water scarcity is a critical problem and sustainability a growing concern. 2022-02-23T18:16:45Z 2022-02-23T18:16:45Z 2022-02-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2073-4395 http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13304 10.3390/agronomy12020435 en https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/12/2/435 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess MDPI |
| spellingShingle | reclaimed water tertiary water treated wastewater circular economy sustainable agriculture perceptions farmers López Serrano, María José Velasco Muñoz, Juan Francisco Aznar Sánchez, José Ángel Román Sánchez, Isabel María Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title | Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title_full | Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title_fullStr | Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title_short | Farmers’ Attitudes towards Irrigating Crops with Reclaimed Water in the Framework of a Circular Economy |
| title_sort | farmers’ attitudes towards irrigating crops with reclaimed water in the framework of a circular economy |
| topic | reclaimed water tertiary water treated wastewater circular economy sustainable agriculture perceptions farmers |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13304 |
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