| Water is the source of life, the key to production, and the basis of ecology. Water is essential to modern agricultural construction, an irreplaceably fundamental support for the social and economic development and also an inseparable security system of improving the ecological environment. Xinjiang is located in the arid areas of China, with comparatively less amount of precipitation, larger amount of evaporation, and, therefore, is among the provinces suffering the most severe water shortage in China. "Desert plus oasis, with irrigated agriculture" is its most notable feature. The sharp imbalance between the water supply and demand has been a key issue troubling the agricultural and rural economic development in Xinjiang.On the one hand, due to climate and other natural causes, the total water resources in Xinjiang are on the trend of decreasing, leading to inadequate water supply; on the other hand, with the expansion of agricultural irrigation, the improper use of water resources, a lot of wasting, and inefficient irrigation, all these result in the increased water consumption, exacerbating further the conflict of water supply and demand. Therefore, improving water use efficiency, and taking the path of developing water- conserving agriculture are the inevitable choices to ensure to achieve the goal of modern agricultural development in Xinjiang.Based on the above background, this study, taking Yanqi Basin as an example, with the target of attaining efficient and sustainable use of agricultural irrigation water resources,and the focus of the operation and development of their irrigation behavior options and farmers' water-utilization organization,through making the relevant literature reviews and theoretical analysis,makes a descriptive analysis on the utilization and management of water resources situation in Yanqi basin, and then applies AHP to have some assessments on those issues that may affect if the water resources could be utilized efficiently, like the situations of water resources, water use efficiency, farmers'water-utilization organizations. It also proposes some effective solutions to improve water resource efficiency in Yanqi Basin. On this basis, through the data collection from a large number of questionnaires, using an empirical analysis, the study tries to construct the option model of farmers'irrigation behavior, explores the factors that may affect if the farmers in Yanqi basin will actively choose the water saving irrigation technology, and then, in consideration of these factors, some effective measures about how to improve their irrigation behaviors are proposed. On the other hand, the most effective approach to improve farmers' irrigation behavoirs is to develop farmers' water-utilization organisation. Therefore, more analyses are made on the organisational developpment of the association and its operational management model, as well as those barriers on the organizational and operational models of farmers'water-utilization management and the development of Water Users Association. It suggests that, for the sake of protecting the sustainable and healthy development of WUA, a favorable external environment must be created, the relationships have to be streamlined, and the association's self-development should be enhanced. Finally, the main conclusions of this study are drawn: improper agricultural irrigation approach is the dominant factor leading to low utility efficiency; the economic benefits of water use is the determinant of changing this situation; farmers'participatory irrigation management is organizational guarantee for realizing it; farmers'options of irrigation behaviors are subject to a variety of internal and external factors; developing the irrigation technology of efficient agricultural water-saving is the direction of achieving the sustainable use of water resources. And from the government level, a number of constructive recommendations on the policies of improving water use efficiency are made.
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