As part of the EMPOWERMed project, project partner UTAEM conducted a survey with farmers in the Menemen Plain in Türkiye. The activity gathered farmers’ perspectives on challenges associated with agricultural irrigation, including access to water and irrigation-water pollution.
The survey also examined farmers’ views on improved irrigation systems. Understanding these experiences and attitudes is important for developing water-management measures that respond to local agricultural conditions and the practical needs of water users.
💧 Understanding irrigation challenges
Farmers in water-scarce agricultural regions face interconnected technical, environmental and socio-economic pressures. Limited access to suitable irrigation water can affect crop production, farm planning and the feasibility of adopting more efficient irrigation practices.
By engaging directly with producers, the survey helps document how water-access constraints and concerns about irrigation-water quality are experienced at farm level.
👩🌾 Farmers’ perspectives on improved irrigation
The activity also explored farmers’ approaches to improved irrigation systems. Their experience can help identify factors that may encourage or hinder the adoption of more efficient technologies and practices.
Technical solutions are more likely to be effective when they reflect local operating conditions, farmers’ knowledge and the resources available to agricultural communities.
🤝 Supporting the Menemen Living Lab
Menemen is one of the locations included in EMPOWERMed’s participatory Living Lab activities. These activities bring researchers and stakeholders together to examine water-management challenges and co-design locally relevant responses.
The farmer survey contributes to this participatory approach by ensuring that agricultural water users’ perspectives are considered alongside hydrological analysis, digital technologies and field demonstrations.
💧 About EMPOWERMed
EMPOWERMed is a PRIMA-funded research project developing integrated approaches to water-scarcity management in Mediterranean regions. Its work combines water accounting, hydrological modelling, remote sensing, digital technologies, socio-economic research, agricultural demonstrations and stakeholder participation.
🔭 What’s next?
The information collected through the survey can support subsequent stakeholder discussions and the design of activities addressing agricultural water management in the Menemen Plain.
Survey findings should be interpreted after the responses have been systematically analysed. Any conclusions about farmers’ priorities or the adoption of improved irrigation systems should be based on the complete survey results.
Source and further reading: original UTAEM survey update on LinkedIn.