Work

Conceptualising climate change vulnerability across the agrarian transition: The example of Egypt

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper, we aim to understand the links between the agrarian transition in Egypt and farmers’ environmental risk perceptions and opportunities for climate change adaptation. We build from knowledge of agrarian studies and rural development pathways in Egypt to highlight key structural challenges in addressing the vulnerabilities of households in agrarian communities to environmental change. Evidence is provided from 350 landholders and agricultural labourers in Damietta, a governorate in the northeast of the Egyptian Nile Delta Region. Three household groups are identified according to the contribution of agricultural activities to their income, which corresponds to model groups in relation to the agrarian transition. Vulnerabilities and capacities to adapt to climate change are unevenly distributed among the three groups of households, with those who depend primarily on agriculture for a living form a more vulnerable cohort - with the greatest awareness of agricultural risk but the least capacity to respond in or ex situ - thus representing a potentially trapped population that will require direct targeted support as the climate changes and the environmental resource base declines.

Source: Environmental Development

DOI: 10.1016/j.envdev.2024.101087

Authors: Ayah R. Omar, Douglas K. Bardsley

Institutions: Cairo University, The University of Adelaide

Language: English

Topic: Climate change impacts on agriculture

Subfield: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Zero hunger, No poverty

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,100