Analysis of the factors affecting water consumption and use in the rural population: Antalya provincial application

Water is the most important vital resource that ensures the continuity of life. The limited and rapid decrease in the water resources needed in every sector reveals the necessity of using water effectively and efficiently. As it is known, Turkey is a country with water shortage and 77% of its current water resources are used in the agriculture sector. In this framework, the study focused on the issue of water, which is among the priorities of the country. A face-to-face survey was conducted with 120 producer households residing in Serik, Finike and Demre districts of Antalya province in order to determine the factors affecting water consumption and use at the household and producer level in the rural population. The primary data obtained were analyzed by means of the SPSS program, which are multivariate statistical analysis methods, Factor analysis, Cluster analysis and Chi-square independence test. In the study, 70 elements in the database were reduced to 17 factors in determining the factors affecting household water consumption. Factors affecting household water consumption; Tap Water Quality, Water Sensitivity, Water Service, Water Conservation and Sensitivity to Education, Regional Water Potential, Water Scarcity Concern, Housing Characteristics, Tap Water Problems, Billing Service Disruptions, Water Cuts, Decrease in Water Amount, Health and Price Sensitivity, Water The problem has been revealed as Housing Age, Water Consumption Consciousness, Legal Definitions, Water Usage Habits. The determined factors explain 76.14% of the total variance. The 62 factors that are thought to affect the agricultural water use of the producers were reduced to 15 factors. Factors affecting water use in agriculture are; Training Programs on Water and Irrigation, Disadvantages of Traditional Irrigation, Reason for Trending to Modern Irrigation, Agricultural Water Anxiety, Amount of Agricultural Water, Production Benefit of Modern Irrigation, Savings in Input Usage, Agricultural Irrigation Awareness, Producer Satisfaction, Sensitivity to Credit and Grant Support, Agricultural Water Fee, Producer Income and Experience, State Support in Modern Irrigation, Irrigation Support Willingness, Agricultural Irrigation Infrastructure. The determined factors explain 78.86% of the total variance. In the study, two sub-market segments were created by taking into account the household water consumption and agricultural water use of the households in order to develop appropriate marketing policies with cluster analysis. According to the results of the analysis, significant differences were revealed in the household and producer level of water perception, attitudes, behaviors, and water consumption and usage levels in the market segments. In addition, in the Chi-square test, it was concluded that there is a significant relationship at the 5% importance level between the level of producer satisfaction and awareness of agricultural water use, between the level of producer satisfaction and the knowledge level of the producers in the region about agricultural irrigation, and between some problems related to tap water in households and packaged water consumption. . It has been determined that 93.3% of the producer households participating in the survey are male, they do the farming profession mainly as the main source of income, and 83.9% use modern irrigation methods in terms of irrigation method.