Extreme weather events and negative impacts on Egyptian agriculture

Agriculture sector is highly sensitive to climate variability and weather extremes. Extreme weather events are increasingly threatening the farmers and agricultural production, it causing serious losses and damages increasingly gradually in Egypt. The aim of this study is to investigate and identify the extreme weather events which occurred in Egypt and its impact on agriculture. The most significant extreme weather events during the recent past years have been chosen in this study. These events have had negative impacts either in terms of cost to the economy especially on agriculture production, loss of life, or displacement and long term impact on the national income in Egypt. This study focuses on four extreme weather events which have been occurred in the recent past years (extreme heat and cold temperatures, extreme wind, and extreme precipitation). The weather data were collected from central laboratory for Agricultural climate, Agricultural research center, and analyzed in order to identify the extreme weather impacts on Egyptian agriculture. The results indicated that, the duration and frequency of extreme weather in Egypt have increased in the recent past years. The data show increasing the hotter and colder extreme events over the Egypt during recent years. Extreme weather has many adverse impacts on Egypt society and environment, affecting human health, infrastructure, agriculture and ecosystems. Egypt is one of the most vulnerable countries to the potential impacts and risks of extreme weather events.