The adoption of water saving irrigation practices in the Region of West Macedonia

The use of irrigation water for agricultural production requires innovative and sustainable research and an appropriate transfer of water saving technologies. The main aim of this paper is to explore the irrigating behaviour of farmers examining factors affecting their decision to adopt novel water saving practices. In order to achieve the above aim both summary statistics and multivariate methodologies are employed. In particular, a two-step cluster analysis was used to explore the different adoption levels of water saving practices and a categorical regression model was estimated to explain this variation. Data were collected through a survey addressing 400 irrigators, carried out in 2008 in a typical Greek rural area. Results show that although respondents have already adopted several water saving practices the current irrigated agriculture cannot be sustained in a sustainable manner.