Sustainable rice production under water scarcity conditions using drip irrigation: Based on evidence among Iranian farmers

• Investigating factors affecting the adoption of drip irrigation instead of flooding in rice cultivation. • Providing practical policies in the field of sustainable water management in the agricultural sector. • Using structural equation modeling in data analysis. Rice is one of the most essential food crops worldwide; however, traditional cultivation methods, particularly flooding, are increasingly unsustainable due to excessive water consumption, especially in regions facing water scarcity. Consequently, policymakers and researchers are exploring innovative approaches to rice farming that reduce water usage. Studies indicate that drip irrigation is among the most effective strategies for conserving water while improving crop yield. Despite its advantages, adoption among farmers remains limited. This study aims to identify the key factors influencing Iranian farmers' willingness to implement drip irrigation in rice cultivation, focusing on farmers in Shushtar County, Khuzestan Province (southwest Iran), who currently rely on the conventional flooding method. A questionnaire served as the primary research tool, with its validity confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this study, an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework was employed to examine farmers’ intention to adopt drip irrigation in rice cultivation. The original TPB model—comprising attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC)—was enhanced by integrating four additional constructs: relative advantage (RA), compatibility (CO), moral norms (MN), and risk perception (RP). The extended model demonstrated strong predictive performance, explaining 81.3 % of the variance in farmers’ intention, representing a 27.9 % improvement over the original TPB. Notably, while ATT was the most influential factor in the original model, RA emerged as the dominant predictor in the extended framework, underscoring the importance of perceived benefits in behavioral decision-making. Overall, this study bridges gaps in the theoretical literature while providing valuable insights for policymakers, supporting sustainable water management initiatives in the agricultural sector.