The Awareness of Palm Trees Farmers in the uses of Treated Wastewater in Irrigation PDF

Keywords

Awareness, Farmers, Wastewater, Irrigation, Palm trees.

Abstract

The primary purpose of the study was to determine the awareness of Palm trees farmers toward the uses of wastewater in Palm trees irrigation. The population size of the study was 304 farmers. Questionnaire were reviewed for content and face validity by a panel of experts from department of agricultural extension at the College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University . A three point Likert -type scale was used. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.85, which indicated the internal consistency of the scale. Findings were that: 98% of the farmers used treated wastewater in irrigating Palm trees, 54% of farmers irrigate fruits trees and 40% of farmers irrigate pasture crops with treated water. Seventy eight percent of farmers used flood irrigation, 44% of farmers do not known that they should not collect fruits that fall on the ground when using sewage .Nearly 41% of farmers do not known that they should stop irrigation with treated wastewater one week before harvesting. Significant differences at the level of 0.05 were detected in means of farmers in different levels in age, education, occupation, and experiences. Farmers with higher level of education, more experiences and older in age are more aware of health precautions and technical and laws of wastewater. It recommended that an extension programs be implement to raise awareness of farmers to reduce the risks when using wastewater in agriculture.