Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security in Egypt

This chapter introduces briefly the main technical components of the chapter presented in the book. The technical contents of the chapters are presented theme-wise arrangement. The book contains 25 chapters arranged under five themes to covers different topics associated with climate change impacts on agriculture and food security in Egypt.

In this chapter, we discuss the global paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes focusing on their causes and consequences. Two main processes can yield the climatic changes; the earth’s internal processes and the extraterrestrial impacts. Both of them have a strong effect on the earth’s system. The paleoclimatic change is well preserved in the earth’s sedimentary record and can be reviled by using multidisciplinary studies including mineralogy, geochemistry, and the fossil contents. Egypt is a key area of one of the most pronounced climatic changes that occurred in the earth’s geologic history; the Paleocene Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) that used recently as analog for the current warming.

A cross-cutting issue like climate change, cannot be managed by one government department or single ministry. Assessing of the impact of climate change and effectively integrating adaptation and mitigation measures has to involve almost every sector in government with their administrative system mainstreaming climate change into their strategies and development policies and plans. Successful climate change governance systems should ensure the implementation of climate policy integration at the national level. All Egypt’s economic sectors are linked in one way or another with climate change because they emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or are themselves impacted by climate change. Notable industries include energy, transport, urban communities, water, agriculture, health and tourism. Environmental governance of these sectors started with the establishment of The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) in 1982 as the highest national authority in the country responsible for promoting and coordinating all efforts related to environmental protection. Achievements have been made at the strategic level with the engagement of relevant stakeholders to develop: (1) the National Environmental Action Plan of Egypt 2002–2017, (2) several rounds of Egypt’s National Communication on Climate Change, (3) Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to the Paris Agreement, (4) Egypt’s National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, (5) the country’s National Energy Efficiency Strategy. Each of these developments has contributed to the mainstreaming of climate change in Egypt’s institutional structures. However, while a framework for climate change adaptation exists in Egypt, local level policies and actions need to be strengthened to ensure effective implementation of adaptation and mitigation effects. There is also a need to formulate integrated climate change strategies, to enable access to climate finance mechanisms, and to develop and strengthen the policies, institutions, capacities, knowledge and transformative change required to build climate-resilient communities. The existing role of public and local civic institutions needs emphasis, and new incentives are needed to promote the involvement of private organizations and institutions in facilitating climate change adaptation.

Science has been approaching atmosphere, change in global temperature, oceans and seas for a long time; however as the climate change becoming a serious man made environmental challenge with its serious impact on livelihood, the role of science and new innovations and technologies became even more important than ever. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body for the assessment of climate change, established to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences. The IPCC reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. Thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC on a voluntary basis. It has been well established scientifically that The Near East and North Africa (NENA) region is one of the most vulnerable regions to climatic change. The ‘Regional Initiative for the Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources and Socio-Economic Vulnerability in the Arab Region’ RICCAR was initiated for a close scientific observation on the impact of climate change on the Region based on modeling and expected scenarios.To cope with the impact of climate change on agricultural sectors, new technologies and innovations have been tested and verified by agricultural research initiatives that contributes to the climate change adaptation efforts and enable the farmers and policy-makers to draw their strategies and actions to face climate change impacts. These efforts include integrating heat, drought, and salinity tolerance traits through genetic improvement into the crop and horticultural varieties. Similar breeding techniques have been used in the livestock sector. Crop simulation models can predict key crop characteristics over a wide range of climatic conditions, such as the timing of flowering and physiological maturity, through correct descriptions of phonological responses to temperature and day length. Egypt vision 2030 stated that “Knowledge, innovation, and scientific research contribute in achieving the goals of sustainable development in general, whether national or international, where the increase in the contribution of a large number of economic sectors in economic activity can be achieved by connecting scientific research outputs and innovation by the needs of these sectors”. The Egyptian research system is making great effort to overcome challenges related to innovation, and scientific research and already making big progress with regards to assessment of the climate change impact on Egyptian agriculture as well as suggesting scientific climate change adaptation measures.

The global climate change can influence agricultural productivity by altering the plant-microbe interactions. Plant-associated fungi play important roles in these interactions by regulating nutrient transformation in soils, nutrient availability for plants and plant health and growth. The abiotic stressors that increase with the changing climate result in significant alterations in these processes. These alterations are either as a response to the changing biology of the plant or due to the direct effect of the stressors on the fungi. In this chapter we retrospect the current knowledge on the plant-associated fungi and discuss the effects of the changing climate on their interactions with their hosts. The goal of this review is to emphasize the need for more research on plant-fungal interactions that can increase the resilience of crops to climate change.

Egypt’s agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and its exposed to environmental threats in different faces such as energy, water and food security. Specifically, climate change is possible to change plant species composition, abundance and function of soil community, and plant-microbe interactions that together affect the quality of agricultural soils. For microorganisms inhabiting Egyptian soils, some insight has been exposed to high temperature and accumulating of carbonates and soluble salts in Aridisols (desert soils), and the other inhabiting in alluvial soils (Entisols) in the Nile Delta and the Qattara Depression of the western desert. Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria, actinobacteria, fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that play an important role in nutrient cyclings. Unfortunately, the soil is a complex habitat for microbial growth, and the structure and function of microorganisms are tremendously complex in the soil. These complexations lead the difficult to predict the effects of climate change on the activity of Egyptian soil microorganisms. Climate change will have direct and indirect effects on soil microbial activity. Climate changes include increasing temperature, elevated or increasing the concentration of CO₂, rise changing soil moisture content, increasing of soil salinity, and drought. These changes led to reversely impacted soil microbial communities that affect biogeochemical cycles of nutrients in agricultural soils. Therefore, understanding of microbial activity in the soil is essential for our ability to evaluate the necessity of biogeochemical cycles-climate feedbacks. Soil microbial activities play an important role in increasing soil fertility and recycling of nutrients within the soil. Activity in soil microorganism and/or enzyme is significant as a sensitive indicator of soil biological quality. These activities are informative to determine changes in soil biochemical properties that are affected by environmental stress from natural phenomena or anthropogenic activities. In this chapter, we review the currently available researches regarding the impact of climate change on soil microbial activity, especially in Egyptian soils. Soil microbial activity includes microbial populations, microbial biomass, enzymes activity, soil beneficial microorganisms and carbon sequestration in Egyptian soil.

Egypt is a country that foresees to face severe effects owing to climate change. Soil may consider an important source of greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides). The drivers of soil GHG emissions are soil type and composition (i.e. soil texture, pH, soil organic matter (SOM), etc.), soil temperature, moisture, fertilization, soil miss-management (Tillage), rice cultivation and burning of Crop residues. Soil also considered as a victim of climate change. Global warming may induce, depletion of soil organic matter that causes the decline of soil fertility, poor soil water regime, shifting of soil microbiome and soil compaction (i.e. Increase soil compaction, surface sealing and crust formation). Global warming induces also sea level rise (SLR) on soils of Egypt which increase the area of submerged lands in northern Nile Delta and consequently soil salinization. With climate change, more frequent extreme precipitation and drought events are projected which may exacerbate the rate and soil susceptibility to accelerated erosion, salinization and other degradation processes, leading to further carbon losses. In conclusion, this chapter summarizes geographical nature of climate change impacts and the history of flooding rainstorms in Egypt.

The soil is the largest terrestrial carbon (C) stock, and those factors that affect C retention and release also influence on atmospheric CO₂ levels. Soil C sequestration represents about 90% of the total mitigation practices of climate change and about 10% of emission reduction. There is a great concern of soil carbon (C) sequestration and its role in absorbing atmospheric CO₂ not only because of its impacts on climate change mitigation but also because of its positive impacts on the sustainability of crop productivity, soil fertility and soil quality. Cultivation has resulted in considerable loss of soil C due to chemical and biological decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC), as well as erosion by wind and water. However; in carefully managed croplands, soil C sequestration can be substantial and represents a potentially constructive portion for mitigating the increased levels of atmospheric CO₂. There is a general agreement that many agricultural ecosystems have a huge potential to sequester carbon in the soil, which could decrease CO₂ concentrations in the air and mitigate its global emissions. Egyptian soils are low in their C content. Thus its potential to sequester C is high. Therefore, good management practices should be considered for enhancing soil C sequestration in Egyptian soils especially in degraded and desert soil.

The human induced increase in global average temperature over the past two centuries has led to an increase in the global mean sea level. The Nile Delta is one of the three most vulnerable areas to the sea level rise threat in the world. The saltwater intrusion caused by sea level rise is expected to negatively affect agricultural activities in the Nile Delta through its detrimental effects on groundwater and soil. Given its significant contribution to Egypt’s agricultural production, the Nile Delta’s adaptation to the anticipated rise in sea level is necessary for social and economic reasons. In order to investigate and analyze such environmental problems and their impacts, the EGSLR model has been developed. The EGSLR covers the area from Alexandria to Port Said which extends to about 285 km along the Mediterranean coast. The development of the EGSLR is using the assessment of the IPCC definition of vulnerability. National and sub-national geographic and socio-economic data have been gathered for the area of study from different sources including Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), land cover, urban areas, industrial zones, protected areas, power plants and population data. The scenarios of sea level rise are the preliminary basis for ministries, sectors and provinces to assess possible impacts on socio-economics sectors to develop and implement their respective plans for responding to and reducing potential impacts of future changes.

The international community has developed the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that include specific elements to enhance sustainable agricultural production and food security. SDG 13 “take urgent actions to combat climate change and its impacts” calls for enhancing the adaptive capacity and build resilience to climate change as well as mainstreaming climate change measures into policies and planning processes of the countries. According to the IPCC assessment, Near East North Africa is one of the world regions that are most vulnerable to climatic change and consequently, agriculture is the most affected sector. It is anticipated that such a climate change impact would reduce crop yield up to 30%. Within the ‘Regional Initiative for the Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources and Socio-Economic Vulnerability in the Arab Region’ (RICCAR), the impact of climate change on specific agriculture sectors was projected using the two considered climate scenarios, based on selected Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP), specifically RCP 4.5 (moderate-case scenario) and RCP 8.5 (worst-case scenario). Based on the RICCARD projections, the vulnerability of the agricultural sectors in the Arab Region to climate change have few aspects. Environmental challenges in the Arab world include water scarcity, with the lowest freshwater resource endowment in the world and very low precipitation with excessive exposure to extreme events. The Arab Region is one of the most impacted regions by climate change with half of its area’s cropland systems producing wheat, maize, olives, potatoes, olives and vegetables are considered high vulnerable to climate change. Livestock production as well is expected to decline due to drought, increase in degradation of rangelands and desertification. Expected more drought cycles in addition to increasing deforestation rate add to the challenges facing the forestry sector in the region. Egypt is considered as one of the countries that are greatly impacted by the climate change. The vulnerability of Egypt to climate change is significant in all agriculture sectors: cropping, fishery and livestock. Developing strategy to enhancing adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in Egypt requires coordination and integration between the main related national strategies such as Egypt’s Vision 2030 [1], the Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy [2], and Egypt’s National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction [3]. Climate change adaptation is of paramount importance to agriculture, given the reliance of the sector on climate. Climate change adaptation policies should be based on science, and incorporate knowledge of indigenous peoples and traditional practices.

Crop pollination is one of the most valuable ecosystem services. It plays an important part in human food security. Pollination services are mainly provided by wild pollinator species as solitary bees and by commercially managed honeybees. Pollinators also have a key role in maintaining other ecosystem services including ensuring biodiversity. Declines in bee diversity over the last two decade have been recorded in many countries worldwide. Some drivers generate many stressors for pollinators such as loss of habitat, nest fragmentation, urbanization, reduced floral resource supply, increasing of pests and diseases, extensive use of pesticides and climate change. Climate change is potentially the most serious threat to pollinator biodiversity, reducing crop productivity and negatively impacting global food security. This chapter focuses on explaining the evidence of the biotic responses to the slight climate changes that occurred recently. In Egypt, many studies have proven that many bee species including honeybees are under huge threats affecting the agriculture production and plant vegetation. To mitigate this great problem, several attempts were conducted in order to conserve and propagate the most vulnerable solitary bee species through re-nesting them in artificial nests to be used for crop pollination.

Adaptation to climate change should involve changes in agricultural management practices in response to changes in climate conditions. This chapter reviews agricultural adaptation strategies in Egypt in cushioning the effects of climate change. Widely known agricultural adaptation techniques utilized by farmers included the use of drought-resistant crop varieties, crop diversification, changes in crop pattern and planting schedule, soil moisture conservation via suitable tillage practices, improved irrigation efficiency, and forestry and agro-forestry. Crop calendars include information on the timing of periods of crop sowing, growing, and harvesting. A huge number of literature take into consideration the techniques established by farmers to deal with climate variability. However, there is no literature on how exactly the agricultural calendar is presently moving. The current chapter is exploring observed changes in the agricultural calendar as a response to climate variability in Egypt. Land surface phenology (LSP) metrics were used as a proxy for crop calendars and criteria like those of season start and end (SOS and EOS respectively) were applied to classify the pixel-level growth period of active agricultural vegetation. Indeed, this information is not crop-specific, and therefore it is still applicable to use crop calendars from reliable sources which provide crop-specific phenological timing like sowing, growing, and harvesting. It was observed that seasons have shifted and shortened. For instance, in Egypt, the short dry season, which started in August, has shifted to July. In conclusions, there is a shift in cropping areas in Egypt due to gradual climate changes. The chapter has demonstrated the need for farmers to adjust their agricultural calendar and switch to agricultural practices that make better use of natural resources.

The objective of this chapter was to quantify how climate change will affect the value of Kc for several important crops in Egypt. One way to do so is to develop a procedure to accurately estimate Kc values for 14 field crops, 7 fruit crops and 13 vegetable crops in the five agro-climatic zones of Egypt in 2030. Monthly values of evapotranspiration (ETo) in 2016 were calculated using Penman-Monteith equation (P-M) and Hargreaves-Samani equation (H-S). Then, the monthly ETo(H-S) values were regressed on monthly ETo(P-M) values, and prediction equations were developed for each agro-climatic zone of Egypt. These equations were used to project ETo values under climate change in 2030 using RCP6.0 climate change scenario resulted from MIROC5 climate change model. These values of ETo were used to run BISm model and to calculate Kc values for the studied crops, the date of each Kc growth stage and its water consumptive use in 2030. Comparison between Kc values in 2016 and 2030 for field and vegetable crops revealed that the values of Kc_ini were higher in 2016, compared to its counterpart values in 2030. The values of Kc_mid and Kc_end were similar or lower in 2016, compared to its counterpart values in 2030. Whereas, there was no change in the values of Kc for fruit crops between 2016 and 2030.

Climate change has become one of the major global environmental problems of the 21st century. Rice is the main cereal crop for over 50% of the world’s population. Rice cultivation is known as an important emitter of greenhouse gases emission especially methane due to rice management practices and burning of rice straw after harvesting. However, many studies confirmed that rice soils accumulate carbon higher than other crops such as wheat and corn. The cultivated area of rice in Egypt is approximately 650,000 ha from the whole cultivated area in Egypt; approximately 3.3 million ha; i.e. around 20% of the cultivated area in Egypt. Egypt relies on the Nile for 97% of its water requirements. The expected scenario of water deficiency in Nasser lake due to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam construction, with pulling of deficiency from Dam Lake; is emphasizing on wasting approximately 1.7 million ha of Egypt’s cultivated area. As well, the expected high scenario of a relative sea level rise in Egypt; especially Nile Delta increases the amount of land that lying under risk from inundation in the north Nile Delta by 300 km², which estimated by one-fifth of the total agricultural land in the northeast Nile Delta only. Also, all crops are projected to have a decrease in yields and an increase in irrigation needs. Thus; all these challenges will increase the stresses on rice production and decrease soil C storage in Egypt as a result of climate change and water shortage due to establishing GERD. Therefore, the changing in rice management practice; such as decreasing ploughing, creating another alternative to rice straw burning and balanced fertilizer application; will lead to mitigating of greenhouse gases emission from rice cultivation and improving soil organic matter (SOM) stocks, subsequently soil quality and productivity.

The Red Palm Weevil (RPW) is a devastating insect on the date palm in the Arabic countries. It causes considerable damage to date palm plantations. All the stages of insect are hidden inside the palm tree and larvae feed on the interior tissue of trunk. For this reason, the detection of infection in the early stages is very difficult or impossible and when the action of the pest is discovered, normally it is too late for recovering the tree. The current measures used to control the insect are not effective enough to succeed in eliminating the insect because of the great difficulty in early detection of infection and reaching all life stages inside the trunk. The objective of this study is to detect the presence of living stages of RPW, which are hidden in the palm tree. Sensors and nanoparticles have useful applications in detection and treatment of the date palm. The study revealed that using Nano-techniques such as an acoustic sensor, thermal sensors as fingerprints, the infection of RPW can be discovered in early stages. The results of the audio analysis would be reported wirelessly to a control station for subsequent processing to send warning messages to be accessible via the Internet. Nano-thermal sensors are efficient to detect the existence of the RPW through its thermal properties. Also, using Nano-minerals as a treatment for the already Red Date Palm Weevil is important. The nanoparticle minerals (Rutile, Anatase or Brookite) were used and prepared in Moringa oleifera leaves extract to control RPW. The plant-mediated biosynthesis of nanoparticles is advantageous over chemical and physical methods because it is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method, where it is not necessary to use high pressure, energy, temperature, and toxic chemicals. Also, using ultra-sonic sensors prevent the RPW to attack the date palm trees. Unlike traditional methods, which are time-consuming, and labor intensive, these types of methods offer the advantages of keeping the palm trees intact; reduce costs, as well as saving time and money in the process of pest infestation detection. Nano-minerals extract (NME) drastically decreased developmental stages of R. ferrugineus. The compound is a 100% natural solution. It is derived from natural plants and minerals that can significantly aid in controlling RPW. Also, it is safe to use on all plants and crops including natives.

Measures to combat climate change encompass two primary titles: removal of the maximum greenhouse effective gases and decreasing causes of greenhouse gas emissions. The direct greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. Nitrous oxide is approximately 300 and methane around 30 times than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Climate change affects and is affected by all communities, but its treatment must begin with the actions of individuals. Trees in the urban area strongly reduce pedestrian level heat stress by absorbing and reflecting solar irradiance. Vegetation in gardens is one of the most important components affecting climate change. Urban gardening, mainly consist of trees resource, is a valuable asset. Trees’ benefits to the human being were most pronounced in their contribution to environmental benefits. Thus, plants in gardens were found to provide a particularly important function in mitigating climate change and maintaining environmental quality of communities. Gardeners can help lessen the global warming pollutants associated with waste disposal by turning leaves, grass, woody garden clippings, and dead garden waste into mulch or compost, then using it in the garden. Recycling these wastes will not only reduce methane emissions from landfills but also improve garden’s soil and help it store carbon. One of the innovative methods that reduces greenhouse gases emissions is to make and use biochar. Because nitrous oxides is an important greenhouse gas, better management of nitrogen fertilizers can reduce its emissions. The four main management factors that help reduce nitrous oxide emissions from applied nitrogen fertilizer are commonly known as the 4R’s: right application rate; right formulation (fertilizer type); right timing of application; right placement at the plant’s root zone as possible. So, selecting right plants for urban gardens have a potential to influence Earth’s climate by altering regional and global circulation patterns and changing the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Also, it is important to deal with the soil to minimize the harmful impact it could cause to the environment. Planting appropriate tree species near industrial complexes is critical for aesthetic value and gases mitigation.

Climate on earth has changed ordinarily amid the presence of our planet, going from the ice ages to times of warmth. During the most recent quite a few years increments in average air temperatures have been accounted for and associated consequences for atmosphere have been debated widely in an assortment of discussions. Because of its significance around the world, agriculture was one of the first divisions to be contemplated as far as potential effects of climate change. The agriculture was the key advancement in the ascending of current human civilization, whereby developing of domesticated species (Poultry and ranch creatures) produced sustenance which is fundamental for the practicality of the development. Nowadays, great awareness and concern for problems related to environmental quality, and human welfare, which are propagating at standalone terms subjected every day for debates and discussions such as climate change, biodiversity, soil fertility corrosion and beyond all food quality and pollution. Domesticated animals are the real consumers of water yet additionally support a considerable number of pastoralist and farmers’ families. In Egypt where water is a scarce item, there is a requirement for strategies to enhance livestock productivity. The complexity of the problems raised a combined with the heating of the global which called “Heat Stress” as a result of global climate changes, and the unlikelihood about numerous essential information regularly make discourses uncertain; even indication issued by scientific specialists are now and then misleading, and the problems are exacerbated by the continuous influence of ideological positions. A great net interaction gathering impact of climate change on soil, water, population growth, and energy, where more administrative and non-legislative tasks expected to supply farmers with high-quality seeds, high-quality forage with sufficient amount for animals, and veterinary administrations. In this way, thinking about the decent variety of farming frameworks, one rural strategy won’t fit all farmers’ classifications. Additionally, administrative and non-legislative administrations ought to be contemplated by the district and the season.

Climate change is a long-term change in the earth’s climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature. Climate change demonstrates itself through the noticeable variation in the weather, including temperature, rainfall, and wind. Agriculture in the arid land is vulnerable to climate changes since it depends on water resources and prevailing atmospheric conditions. Influences and consequences of these variables on agriculture might operate negatively or positively. There is a reciprocal effect between climate change and animal production. The production of livestock contributes about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions from all human activities. The farm animals are prone to the adverse impacts of the changes in climate. The changes in climate will impact both of the quantity and quality of forage production as well as their reliability. Major impacts of climatic changes on feed crops and grazing systems would be changes in herbage growth, changes in the composition of pastures, changes in herbage quality, and the offset of biomass yield increases. Since pastures depend on rainfall, any changes in rainfall patterns will affect the plants on pasture. Climate Change Convention in Paris and declared an agreement to: “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels…. recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. Also to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. It targeted to undertake and communicate ambitious efforts to contribute to the global response to climate change by strengthening the mobility of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. The efforts of some selected countries across the world have been explained as examples and experience to get the benefit of as learnt lessons.

Aquatic animals such as fish and crustaceans provide human beings with high-quality protein diets. Meals of aquatic animals are based partially or even entirely on algae. Marine algae can be grown as maricultures in marine environments in various forms. Also, algae can be used for fish diets in inland aquacultures. Algae can also be grown not only for their nutritional value but also for their pigments that can affect the colour and health of some aquatic animals thereby affecting their quality and marketability. However, algal phytoplanktons are not massive in large areas of major oceans. The reason behind that lies in the deficiency of iron despite the presence of other major nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen in high concentrations. Recently this iron limitation in marine environments attracted the attention of scientists. Thirteen iron fertilisation experiments in those oceans were performed to enrich them with iron which in turn would lead to the increase of the phytoplankton and consequently aquatic animals and fishes. Scientists propose that this would cause mitigation of global warming as algae take in carbon dioxide, the main factor responsible for global warming, and release oxygen during photosynthesis. So double benefits are expected in terms of increasing aquatic animals and decreasing global warming. However, the short and long-term overall effects of those experiments are yet to be validated and evaluated. On the other hand, some algae can have a negative impact on fishes. Toxic algae can cause massive fish mortalities. The two main algal groups responsible for toxins production are cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates. They can spread from one water body to another through ballast water or via biofouling aquatic vessels such as ships and boats. This, in turn, would be harmful and even lethal for aquatic animals and would jeopardize food security. Thereby, surveillance of aquatic vessels must be performed.

The potential impacts of climate change on poultry may include changes in production, reproduction, quality of their products (meat or eggs) and diseases. It is noted that high temperature during the summer season or in regions with hot weather and high relative humidity prevent broiler chicks and laying hens to express their high genotypes, especially when they are raised in an open production system. Current poultry production systems comprise large numbers of birds being housed together making them more susceptible to heat stress. Heat stress not only causes inconvenience and high mortality rate for birds, but results also in lower or lost production which therefore reduces the profitability. Both of production performance and feed conversion ratio are affected by heat stress conditions, which affect the production rate. Other effects associated with heat stress include immunity reduction and weak immune response to vaccines that decrease the resistance of birds to many infectious diseases. In laying hens the production is markedly decrease and does not reach to the peak with declining egg quality (e.g. thin and breakable eggshell) in addition to lower egg weight with small size. This chapter discusses some of the key principles (nutritional or managerial practices) that could be used in order to alleviate the adverse effects resulting from heat stress.

As the most socio-economic problems in the world, climatic change is an issue that will cause most damaging for those least able to adapt. But nobody is immune to climatic change—making it a truly global problem. Climate change affirm that the pollution of our atmosphere could result in extreme weather events. With intensify in global temperatures, processes such as desertification are transforming once thriving areas into arid environments. Since warm air is capable of stocking huge quantities of water, due to higher evaporation rates, storms and other extreme climate events have become more frequent and extremist. The challenges posed by climatic change fit broadly into one of two categories: loss of productivity or increasing costs. Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whereas stressor can be defined as “an agent that produces stress at any time”. Therefore, stress represents the reaction of the animal organism to stimuli that disturb its normal physiological equilibrium or homeostasis, due to the mess up of energy and water balances through the evaporative heat loss mechanism. Concerning the effects of heat stress on chickens, the following findings were reported: (1) energizing glucocorticoid-dependent mechanisms and increasing the corticosterone serum levels (2) decreases in the feed consumption, growth rates, the intestinal villi heights, and the wet and dry weights of jejunum, the total white blood cell count; (3) decreases in the number of peripheral blood lymphocytes and induction of an electrolyte imbalance; (4) decreases in the blood lymphocytes and spleen weight; (5) decreases in macrophage activity and (6) decreases in CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes and decreases the antibody production against sheep red blood cells (SRBC).

Climate change is a global phenomenon that has different regional impacts. Some countries and sectors are to be affected more than others, especially those with inadequate adaptive capacities that would increase their vulnerability. According to the climate change projections of potential impacts, Egypt and the Nile Delta are to be affected. The effects of climatic changes are to be experienced more in agriculture, which is to negatively affect rural communities. Meanwhile, agriculture in Egypt and the Nile Delta is countering immediate socio-economic and natural resources related challenges which continuation would exacerbate the impacts of climate change. Therefore, the impacts of these challenges on agriculture in the Nile Delta governorates, in terms of population growth, agricultural land fragmentation, and urban expansion on agricultural land are reviewed. For the identification of the impacts of climate change: temperature increase and sea-level rise (SLR) on agriculture in the Nile Delta governorates, the vulnerability assessment framework (VAF) is used. Findings show that—immediate challenges—urban expansion on agricultural land if not curbed, even without climate change, would severely impact agriculture and thus the national food security. Nevertheless, climate change would have great impacts on agriculture and farmers in the Nile Delta, whereas some governorates are to be more vulnerable to the climate change stimuli than others depending on their exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacities. The chapter concludes that more ‘context-specific’ attention needs to be directed towards agriculture in the Nile Delta to preserve it—from man-made and environmental challenges—for future generations.

Egypt is characterized as arid and semi-arid country with very limited water resources, population growth, and proving with climate changes such reasons grow pressures on the environment and natural resources, and consequently affecting on per capita sharing for water and land, human securities and eventually political stability. There are interrelationships between food, water and climate that affect in sustainable development generally and especially for green sustainable. Green sustainable could support the human being, environment, and prevent poverty in terms of sufficient water and food security. Whenever Climate change is considered as cross cutting issue with food and water security and consequentially for green sustainable Development. Applying Water-climate-Food Security (WCF) Nexus approach, could be save time and efforts need to cope with the risk of climate at these crosscutting areas. It is highly appreciated if there are a coordination between governmental sectors, stakeholders and different beneficiaries. By identifying entry points, processes and partners for WCF nexus mainstreaming, it could be add value to implementation of sectorial strategies and to contribute to cross-sectorial policy goals such as the national vision for sustainable development 2030 and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The next sections identify the interrelationships between Climate water food nexus and discuss the national and international mechanisms that need to conduct this approach efficiently. In addition to drawing attention to some related national strategies in order to meet the green sustainable development.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2018 special report on the implications of 1.5° warming (SR 1.5) concludes that the expected impacts of the 2° increase are more critical than expected leading to imminent critical tipping points. Additionally, the report indicates that there is a window of only 12 years to take actions to achieve the 1.5° target. While Africa is contributing the least to global warming by 4% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, it is one of the vulnerable regions to Climate Change (CC) effects. The objective of this study is to assess different climatic variables on the technical efficiency of the cereal crops production in the largest five producing governorates in Egypt. This objective will be achieved through using panel frontier model to assess the impact of average maximum temperature, humidity and solar radiation on the wheat, rice and maize producing governorates. Results of the analysis show that the average maximum temperature and humidity contribute to worsening the technical efficiency of the cereals producers.

This chapter encapsulates the essential climate change challenges (in terms of conclusions and recommendations) of the agricultural environment in Egypt and presents insights derived from the cases in the volume. In addition, some (update) findings from a few recently published research work related to the climate change covered themes. This chapter focuses on climate change impact on agriculture in Egypt that was documented during the book project. To this end, we identify five main contribution areas, which include an overview of climate change in Egypt, land and water resources, smart farming, livestock, fishery, and aquaculture, and socioeconomic impacts. Therefore, conclusions will be built on researcher vision gained concerning study findings and limitations. In addition, this chapter encompasses evidence on a set of recommendations to direct future research towards climate change impact on agriculture, which is a main strategic theme of the Egyptian Government. The set of recommendations is presented for specialists involved in following additional research to exceed the scope and findings of this book.