Farmers’ profiles and behaviours toward desalinated seawater for irrigation: Insights from South-east Spain

In South-east Spain the implementation of desalinated seawater for irrigation was planned as an alternative water supply for farmers. However, most high-volume desalination plants are underused as farmers’ current demands are lower than was previously expected. In order to develop programmes prom...

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書目詳細資料
Main Authors: Aznar Sánchez, José Ángel, Belmonte Ureña, Luis Jesús, Velasco Muñoz, Juan Francisco, Valera Martínez, Diego Luis
格式: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
語言:English
出版: Elsevier 2023
主題:
在線閱讀:http://hdl.handle.net/10835/14890
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126568
實物特徵
總結:In South-east Spain the implementation of desalinated seawater for irrigation was planned as an alternative water supply for farmers. However, most high-volume desalination plants are underused as farmers’ current demands are lower than was previously expected. In order to develop programmes promoting an effective behavioural shift of farmers toward desalinated water, it is necessary to first explore their preferences and attitudes. This paper shows the results of a survey examining the attitudes and behaviour of farmers toward the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation in the South-east of Spain. The results show the existence of different farmer typologies regarding desalinated seawater use, as well as their preferences and attitudes. The main finding of this study has been to identify further factors, besides price, that condition the acceptance of the use of desalinated seawater. Finally, a series of measures are proposed to encourage the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation based on the identified profiles. The insights gained from this study could be useful for other regions where the construction of desalination plants has been planned as a measure to increase the availability of irrigation water.