Agricultural water poverty: Using Q-methodology to understand stakeholders' perceptions

The aim of this Q methodology study was to identify perceptions of farmers and agricultural specialists toward agricultural water poverty concept and its causes in Marvdasht County, Iran. Seventy five participants completed the Q sort procedure. Data analysis identified seven types of perceptions toward agricultural water poverty: Management-adherents, Adaptive-adherents, Fatalists, Support-seekers, Farmer blamer Pessimists, Technocratic Realists and Optimists. The first four types of perceptions were dominated by farmers and the last three by agricultural specialists. These different perspectives indicated that various individuals think differently about the nature, causes, effects and permanency of agricultural water poverty. Understanding the multiple meaning systems of agricultural water poverty for decision and policy makers will be critical as they may provide the basis for the development of more appropriate strategies to mitigate water poverty in agricultural sector.