Determinants of Rural Households’ engagement in Income-Generating Activities: A study in Remote Rural Communities of Beni-Suif and El-Minya Governorates

The new rural communities of Upper Egypt are subject to unresolved and challenging issues, stemming from unsustainable livelihoods. To address these issues, it is crucial to enhance the efficiency of farm and non-farm sectors in such new and remote rural areas with limited access to service, thereby creating employment opportunities and improving households’ incomes and the overall rural livelihoods. This study mainly aims to identify determinants of rural households’ engagement in incomegenerating activities (IGAs) in four remote rural villages in BeniSuif and El-Minya governorates in Egypt. Using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, the study data were collected in October and November 2022 from 300 households (classified into 185 farm and 115 non-farm respondents or 234 males and 66 females) who participated in IGAs. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson chi-square and Multinominal logistic regression analysis in order to achieve the study objectives. The findings generated form the multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that exposure to economic crisis, exposure to climate change, improvement of the household income and access to trainings and construction’s toolkits are the determinants of the respondents’ engagement in farm and nonfarm IGAs.