The Farmers' Awareness of The Irrigation Water Scarcity in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate

This research was conducted in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate to identify the level of the respondents' awareness of the scarcity of irrigation water, as well as the effects of the scarcity of irrigation water from their point of view. Sidi Salem and El-Ryad districts were selected randomly to collecting data. Two villages were selected randomly from each district. The choice was made for the villages of Daoud El-Faki and Tedah in the district of Sidi Salem, the villages of al-Said Khalil and El-Amdan in the district of El-Ryad.  A random sample of 198 respondents representing 10% of the total number of 1980 farmers. The data were collected using a questionnaire form by personal interview of the sample. The statistical methods used to data analysis and presentation of results were: frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation.
The main results should be as follows:
- A low level of awareness among respondents of the irrigation water scarcity, where 84% of the respondents show their level of awareness between low and medium.
- 83% of the respondents were aware of the problem of water shortage in Egypt, while it was found that more than half of the sample know that one of the reasons for the water scarcity problem are the stability of Egypt's share of Nile water since the 1950s, the farmers don’t follow crop rotations' systems, the absence of the extension role in raising awareness of the importance of irrigation water for farmers, farmers' careless about main canals maintenance, and misuse of agricultural drainage and recycling, while it was found that more than 60% of the respondents know how to overcome the problem of water scarcity through: the maintenance of irrigation canals, land leveling using the Laser technique, and expanding the cultivation of water-saving crops.
- The respondents identified 16 effects of the irrigation water scarcity, and the most important were: irregular rotation of irrigation schemes (64.6%), the decrease in the productivity of some crops (63.6%), the increase in the soil salinity (63.1%), low farm incomes due to low production  and high costs of agriculture practices (60.1%), and irrigation with drainage water (56.6%).