COVID-19 IMPACT: Livelihood of Egyptian small farmers plagued by remittance slump – Egypttoday

COVID-19 IMPACT: Livelihood of Egyptian small farmers plagued by remittance slump – Egypttoday

COVID-19 IMPACT: Livelihood of Egyptian small farmers plagued by remittance slump

CAIRO - 25 June 2020: Remittance flow is considered one of the main financial resources of Egypt's economy; it played a great role in stimulating the African state's economy in 2016 via increasing the foreign currency reserves.

However, the pandemic of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) plagued this resource, haunting the livelihood of small farmers.

"We stopped buying meat and cigarettes to save money because we are afraid of the worsening [conditions] of livelihood due to the coronavirus pandemic,“ Abdel-Qader Mustafa, a farmer in Upper Egypt's Qena and whose son was a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, told Egypt Today.

Mustafa added that his monthly income was gravely affected, as LE 2,000 was deducted from his family income and their livelihood became difficult after his son returned from Saudi Arabia in February.

"Due to the coronavirus, my son could not go back to his work in Saudi Arabia after the end of his annual vacation in February. Since then, he has been taking money from us,“ he continued. The repercussions of the lack of remittances pushed the children of Mustafa's 7-member family to work in the agricultural field for LE 15-20