Evaluating the Productivity of Paddy Water Resources through SWOT Analysis: The Case of Northern Iran

Water shortages in rice production represent a formidable challenge for the world’s food, economic, and social security. is most important single component sustainable growth, especially traditional rice-growing areas. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate improvement of water productivity Northern Iran on basis Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis. This qualitative-descriptive survey. A random sampling method was used determine sample size, finally, 105 male female rural facilitators Sari city (the capital Mazandaran Province located Iran) were surveyed. The results showed that development appropriate infrastructure, increasing new irrigation drainage networks with aim use efficient technologies, strategy. necessary strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats improve management paddy farms area are, respectively, as follows: “fertile fields relatively good soils areas”, “weakness participation interaction users resources projects paying attention only physical ignoring issues network operation farmers’ management”, “improving planning”, “surplus harvest from Tajan River drop level”. Obtained findings may be address scarcity quality agriculture sector. demonstrate that, under potential climate change shortages, SWOT seen guide contingency initiatives.