The Egyptian cotton crop have experienced challenges in recent years from a drop in the quantity produced and exported, to a decrease in cultivated areas, this have affected the production quantity and value of exports. This study aims to bridge the research gap by exploring the nexus between cultivated area of cotton in Egypt, Relative profitability (cotton-clover/rice-clover), export quantity of cotton, the export prices of Egyptian cotton and the export prices of American cotton (Pima). In order to clarify the relationship between the variables studied and the cultivated area of cotton, the research use time series data from 1980 to 2016, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test to the find the co-integration between the variables after checking the stationarity in chosen variables with different unit root tests e.g. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and the Phillips-Perron (PP). The results show, significant factors that influence the cultivated area of cotton include Relative profitability (cotton-clover/rice-clover), export quantity of cotton in long run term. Which underscores the need for government support in agriculture, in particular, cotton crop support. The increasing trend of cotton cost with declining revenue and decreasing in exports quantity is the main cause of decreased cultivated area of Egyptian cotton. Research recommends that support should be given to cotton farmers, in the form of agricultural equipment or training in good agricultural practices or set a price for cotton guaranteeing a decent profit margin for the farmers. The government (policy makers) should improve the productivity of cotton with the purpose of reducing the total costs and increasing the degree of competitiveness of the Egyptian cotton. Some effective policy measures may include but not limited to, farmer training programs and providing better extension services that will led to the capacity development of farmers.

Purpose Climate change and its imminent threat to human survival adversely impact the agriculture sector. In an impoverished country like The Gambia, economic costs of climate change are colossal. This study aims to establish a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for The Gambia’s agriculture sector to examine the effects of climate change on crops, livestock and sea-level rise. Design/methodology/approach This study used a CGE model with other climate change impact models to compute the impacts of climate change on The Gambia’s agriculture sector. The social accounting matrix calibrates the results from the various models, thereby generating the baseline results which exemplify a “steady-state” and policy shock results illustrating the medium- and long-term effects of climate change on the country’s agriculture sector. Findings The baseline results indicate the status quo showing the neglect of the agriculture sector due to limited investment in the sector. Hence, the sector is the “hardest hit” sector as a result of climate change. When the model factored in climate change in the medium term (2055) and long term (2085), the macroeconomic indicators of gross domestic product, national savings, wages, disposable income and consumer price index deteriorated, elucidating the vulnerability of the economy to climate change. The consumption of groundnuts, cattle and fish will decline by 5%, 5% and 4%, respectively, in the long term. However, the production of all agricultural commodities will decline by an average of 35% for the same period. The results for international trade show that exportation would decline while importation will increase over time. The general price level for agricultural commodities would increase by 3% in 2055 and 5% in 2085. Generally, the results manifest the severity of climate change in the agriculture sector which will have a multiplier effect on the economy. The impact of climate change would result in agriculture and economic decline causing hunger, poverty and human misery. Originality/value The caveat of this study revealed the nuances not captured by previous Gambian climate change studies, thus the novelty of the study.

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