Abstracts

The agriculture sector in developing countries is known for its poor working conditions, low rates of payment and growing job insecurity and levels of poverty. Environmental variability are placing more burden on the already affected labour force working in the agriculture sector which lead them to migrate searching for new pastures or jobs elsewhere. Agriculture in Egypt is one of the sectors that is witnessing environmental variability. Although it’s high dependency on manpower and the less use of mechanization due to land fragmentation, the sector is considered as a labour scarce sector. The research aims to identify the influence of environmental factors, particularly climate variability and extremes, on labour mobility and to explore the interaction among the determinant factors that guide individual decisions on mobility between industries and across regions. Reinforced by mixed-methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a survey and in-depth interviews.  The study gathered data on the individual, household and community levels, taking into account the importance of adopting a multilevel model in exploring the determinants of migration.

The study was conducted in 4 villages of Damietta governorate located in the Northeast part of the Nile Delta region. Primary quantitative data were collected from 350 small landholder farmers and waged agricultural labourers using a questionnaire implemented via face-to-face interviews during the period from April 2018 to September 2018. Further 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with farmers and key informants to gather qualitative data about the community situation in the study area.