Abstract
Efficient use of water resources is important all over the world. Excessive water consumption threatens agricultural
sustainability. Besides, drip irrigation draws attention in terms of higher efficiency. It has been studied in cereals as maize has
a wide cultivation area. In this study, a total of 100 maize farmers— half of whom practice drip irrigation— were selected at
random and interviewed face to face to ascertain the views of Amik Plain farmers regarding drip irrigation systems. By the
SPSS software; descriptive statistics were calculated first, and since some data showed normal distribution the Independent
Samples T test was applied, while the non-normal distribution data was subjected to the Mann-Whitney U test and analysed.
The results of the study reveal that there is significant correlation between the farmers’ preferred method of irrigation and
variables such as education level, family size, level of training regarding irrigation systems, bookkeeping habits, annual
income, newspaper preferences, produce yield, planting area, field ownership, credit usage, weed extermination methods, drip
irrigation awareness, source of blockages, and intention to grow maize and employ drip irrigation in the following year.
Suggestions were made to increase the Amik Plain farmers’ awareness regarding water shortages, to survey their opinions on
the matter, and to enlighten them as to the consequences of drip irrigation usage. New agricultural support policies in the region
have led to a decrease in maize fields, however, some drip irrigation farmers state that they intend to continue growing maize
as they can obtain a higher yield with this method.
Keywords: Maize, drip irrigation, efficiency, conservation, innovation, agricultural extension.
Dilek Bostan Budak. (2022) A survey of Amik plain maize (Zea mays) farmers’ views on drip irrigation, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 59, Issue 3.
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