General Crop farmers’ adaptations to soil salinity and water scarcity in Egypt
From July to August, Valentine Depras (Department of Geography, McGill University - Canada) pursued her undergraduate field work research on crop farmers’ adaptations to soil salinity and water scarcity in Egypt, specifically the Nile River Delta. She was especially interested in how crop farmers find solutions to increasingly saline soils and scarce water due to climate change, as well as understanding the way knowledge on adaptations is spread amongst farmers through collaboration with the private and public sector. This led her to travel from Kafr El Sheikh to Baltim, Sidi Salem, Mansoura, Alexandria, Tanta, … to interview crop farmers suffering from those problems. This summer was especially harsh on them since preexisting problems were coupled with abnormally high temperatures.