Climate Change, Agriculture and Rural Communities’ …
549
of those older than 15 years is about 25% in the Nile Delta governorates (men and
women). Nevertheless, over the past decades, many farmers in Egypt have become
part-time farmers—due to the low returns of the shrinking agricultural landownerships—seeking to diversify and/or complement their agriculture-based income
through nonfarm sources. In 2015, the nonfarm sources accounted for about 55% of
farmers’ income, while the agricultural income accounted for 45% [26, 79].
For financing agriculture-related activities, farmers either resort to personal funds
or loans. Farmers’ personal funds originate from personal savings and/or from inheritance. To maximize the use of their funds, they participate in informal saving and
lending mechanisms, the rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) that is
known in Egypt as ‘Gamiaa’
19 [80–82]. Farmers also access additional funds through
borrowing from the Agricultural Bank of Egypt.
20 The bank is the main source of
agricultural financing for small farmers and provides them with short, medium and
long-term loans using their agricultural landownership as collateral. These loans
cover agricultural activities, by financing inputs and equipment, animal breeding, as
well as the provision of personal loans.
Farmers might be willing to decide to use their limited funds to apply inexpensive
adaptation measures by, e.g. changing their planting dates and resorting to other
heat tolerant crop varieties [76]. However, the adoption of adaptation measures by
individual farmers—seeking to maximize their private interest—will be inadequate to
counter climate impacts on agriculture. Individual adaptations might lead to damages
that would affect other farmers or the environment, and in turn agricultural production
on the national level [83]. Furthermore, adaptation measures with greater advantages
would require concerted efforts and sizeable funds to be incurred by farmers, the
government and development organizations [76, 84].
4.4 Vulnerability
The interplay between the socio-economic, natural resources, institutional and financial assets—including access to funding, poverty, landownership, education, experience and access to information—on the one hand, and exposure and sensitivity to
climate change stimuli impacts on the other determines farmers’ and governorates’
vulnerability.
Thus, the Nile Delta governorates and their farmers are not expected to be equally
vulnerable to climatic changes, due to varied assets’ possession and because vulnerability is ‘context-specific’ [85]. In this section, the vulnerability of the Nile Delta
governorates is explored.
Table 6 summarizes the climate change impacts on agriculture and farmers in the
19 ROSCA operates as follows: each month members pay in a certain amount of cash, and each
month, on a rotating basis one of the members receives the total amount paid in by all members.
20 Before 2016 it was known as the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit
(PBDAC).
549
of those older than 15 years is about 25% in the Nile Delta governorates (men and
women). Nevertheless, over the past decades, many farmers in Egypt have become
part-time farmers—due to the low returns of the shrinking agricultural landownerships—seeking to diversify and/or complement their agriculture-based income
through nonfarm sources. In 2015, the nonfarm sources accounted for about 55% of
farmers’ income, while the agricultural income accounted for 45% [26, 79].
For financing agriculture-related activities, farmers either resort to personal funds
or loans. Farmers’ personal funds originate from personal savings and/or from inheritance. To maximize the use of their funds, they participate in informal saving and
lending mechanisms, the rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) that is
known in Egypt as ‘Gamiaa’
19 [80–82]. Farmers also access additional funds through
borrowing from the Agricultural Bank of Egypt.
20 The bank is the main source of
agricultural financing for small farmers and provides them with short, medium and
long-term loans using their agricultural landownership as collateral. These loans
cover agricultural activities, by financing inputs and equipment, animal breeding, as
well as the provision of personal loans.
Farmers might be willing to decide to use their limited funds to apply inexpensive
adaptation measures by, e.g. changing their planting dates and resorting to other
heat tolerant crop varieties [76]. However, the adoption of adaptation measures by
individual farmers—seeking to maximize their private interest—will be inadequate to
counter climate impacts on agriculture. Individual adaptations might lead to damages
that would affect other farmers or the environment, and in turn agricultural production
on the national level [83]. Furthermore, adaptation measures with greater advantages
would require concerted efforts and sizeable funds to be incurred by farmers, the
government and development organizations [76, 84].
4.4 Vulnerability
The interplay between the socio-economic, natural resources, institutional and financial assets—including access to funding, poverty, landownership, education, experience and access to information—on the one hand, and exposure and sensitivity to
climate change stimuli impacts on the other determines farmers’ and governorates’
vulnerability.
Thus, the Nile Delta governorates and their farmers are not expected to be equally
vulnerable to climatic changes, due to varied assets’ possession and because vulnerability is ‘context-specific’ [85]. In this section, the vulnerability of the Nile Delta
governorates is explored.
Table 6 summarizes the climate change impacts on agriculture and farmers in the
19 ROSCA operates as follows: each month members pay in a certain amount of cash, and each
month, on a rotating basis one of the members receives the total amount paid in by all members.
20 Before 2016 it was known as the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit
(PBDAC).