Are opinion leaders important to spread information to cope with extreme droughts in (all) irrigation systems? A network analysis

Abstract

We propose that the ability of opinion leaders of influencing ordinary farmers to adopt more sustainable practices in irrigation systems during extremely dry periods depends on the type of social network in which they are embedded. We show that in disassortative networks, where influent people link preferentially to relatively disconnected ones, e.g., in large gravity-fed irrigation systems, opinion leaders can be important to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices because they tend to present relatively high betweenness centrality scores, which indicates a greater ability to bridge clusters of otherwise disconnected people. In assortative networks, i.e., in networks in which people tend to connect to other similar individuals, on the other hand, it seems that the ability of leaders to influence other people is not directly related to their betweeenness centrality degree. We conclude than that betweenness centrality is a source of influence only in disassortative networks, that additionally present low clustering coefficients. This suggests that opinion leaders may be important to help bridge the informational gap between agencies and stakeholders in some, but not in all, irrigation systems, in order to pave the way for the adoption of measures to cope with extreme droughts, like the one Brazil is currently experiencing.