Learning models for enhancing farmers’ water management skills in rural areas of Sargodha, Pakistan

Since life on the planet, water has been claiming as a lifeline for human beings. The efficient use of water retains productive agriculture, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction, and economic growth. Manageable irrigation in Pakistan is considered as lowest amongst the world yet. Incredibly, the quality of groundwater is not merely declining by overexploitation but also getting worse. This study conducted in District Sargodha, Punjab-Pakistan, had the purpose of analyzing the impact of three farmers Learning Models such as the Value Management Model (VM), Collaborative Problem-Solving Workshops (CPSW) model, and Discovery Learning Model (DL). Particularly in materials and methods, a well-structured survey instrument was prepared for data collection. Both validity and reliability of the instrument were ensured before conducting the full-length study. Census study was designed because of not having a substantial trained population. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for data collection, and data were collected from 92 trained farmers. In the analysis, both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyse the data in SPSS. In descriptive, mean, standard deviation, rank, frequency, and percentage were computed. In Inferential, a paired t-test was computed to analyse the impact of training in enhancing small farmers’ income. The regression model was also computed to predict the variables such as farmers’ knowledge level before receiving training regarding Learning Models, Methods of Irrigation, Water Saving Technique, and different salt/nutrient and water measurement tools.