ABSTRACT
The Egyptian economy has experienced several important changes which have had a tremendous impact on the position and status of different agricultural groups. One of these is the shortage of agricultural laborers. Two arguments are commonly advanced to explain the volume and position of agricultural laborers. One argument claims that an increasing rural population, a stagnant area of cultivable land and only minor changes in the rural economic system inevitably result in increasing poverty. The second argument maintains that the present shortage of agricultural laborers and their rising wages indicate a fall in the actual number of landless laborers and a rise in their living standards.
