Armies of Liberation

Spending 28% of income in low income homes.
Some children start chewing as young as seven.

Yemen Times

Julie G. Viloria-Williams has over 25 years of experience with the World Bank in sustainable people-based development. She held positions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Eastern and Central Asian countries before becoming the Middle East and North Africa regional expert in September last year. She is the team leader in the Qat dialogue task in Yemen, which represents the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen in dealing with this issue. Her job involves research into the issues and development needs of countries within the MENA region, and identification of potential threats, especially on the issues that affect the livelihood of citizens.

“Because of the urgency of the Qat problem in Yemen, it has become the World Bank’s fourth pillar in the bank’s new country assistance strategy along with growth, governance and the Millenium Development Goals,” she said. Based on the December country assistance strategy consultation, the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen will take the form of grants, rather than loans, to be provided over the next three years.

During her recent visit to Yemen, Viloria-Williams met with the various stakeholders and discussed with them the issue of Qat. She also attended some focus groups, during which she realized just how deep the problem is.

“In many families children as young as seven start chewing because of parental influence, especially because mothers, who are usually uneducated, think of Qat as means to bind their children to the family,” she said.

As a part of its campaign against Qat, the WB will be producing a documentary on Qat in Yemen, in both Arabic and English, she anticipates that it will be broadcast on Yemeni TV among other media channels in a bid to spread awareness.

Size of the problem

According to a detailed survey carried out by the World Bank in mid 2006, 72 percent of men and 33 percent of women chew Qat for an average of 6 hours per day. Qat absorbs 10 percent of the average household income and over 28 percent for low income groups. Qat production, trade and consumption accounts for 10 percent of GDP, and is the cause of many health problems. The study sampled more than four thousand Yemenis from around the Republic.

(Read on …)

The administration is utterly dysfunctional.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec 23 — As the spread of myiasis, a condition where animal or human tissue is infested with fly larvae or maggots, in the Mahwit governorate rapidly accelerates, field teams from the General Department for Animal Resources (GDAR) have ceased working towards combating this potentially fatal disease.

The teams stopped work three weeks ago because, according to Ahmed Al-Hasibi, director of the Animal Wealth Administration in Mahwit governorate, “the vector is out of control, it is a fly in the air.”

However, two teams in Bani Sa’ad, one in Al-Khabt and another in Milhan are still working towards eradicating the disease.

“At the moment, GDAR field teams have stopped fighting the epidemic. Because they have not received their salaries from the Ministry of Agriculture since the 3rd December, they have decided to quit,” Al-Hasibi said.

(Read on …)

IRIN

MUKALLA, 8 December 2008 (IRIN) - Agricultural experts, government officials and local communities in Hadramaut Governorate, southern Yemen, are urging the government to tackle an evergreen and fast-growing shrub which has been blocking waterways, with sometimes devastating consequences.

They say the shrub is responsible for exacerbating the late October floods by blocking watercourses and diverting floodwater into villages which might otherwise have been unscathed. At least 90 people were killed, and 20,000-25,000 were made homeless by the floods.

(Read on …)

I just can’t take it anymore.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Nov. 9 — A seminar on the hazards of using sewage water to irrigate crops was held on Thursday in Taiz during the Al-Saeed Forum for Sciences and Culture.

Chaired by Professor Abdulrahman Al-Zubairi, chairman of the department of Microbiology in the Faculty of Sciences at Taiz University, the seminar stressed the importance of immediate attention to the fact that a shortage of water resources has prompted many Yemeni farmers to resort to use sewage water to irrigate their farms.

Al-Zubairi explains, “The shortage of water is the result of both the increasing rate of population growth and irresponsible irrigation. Only seven percent of underground water is consumed by the population, while 93 percent is used for irrigating crops, especially qat.”

The total amount of water used annually is 3.5 billion cubic meters of which 93 percent is used in agriculture, 6 percent in households and 1 percent by industry. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, the renewed fresh water is 2.5 billion cubic meters per year creating a gap between used water and renewed fresh water of one billion cubic meters a year.

(Read on …)

Meanwhile Port workers are on strike.

YahooDUBAI (AFP) – The Emirati DP World group said on Thursday it has officially taken over container operations at the Yemeni port of Aden in a joint venture partnership with the Yemen Gulf of Aden Port Corporation.

“The agreement includes the lease of both Aden Container Terminal and of nearby Ma’alla Container Terminal, and a commitment by the joint venture to invest around 220 million dollars in further developing the port,” it said in a statement.

(Read on …)

update: no food or medicine for three days:

(ap) SANA, Yemen - Flooding caused by a tropical storm has killed 90 people and displaced 20,000 others in southern Yemen, police and the World Food Program said Monday.

The WFP, which said 20,000 people were displaced, said it has been difficult to get aid to hard-hit Hadramut province because many roads were destroyed by floodwaters after Thursday’s storm.

A police official said 90 people died and 24 farms were wrecked. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Yemenis and non-governmental organizations to help flood victims by donating money and other aid.

“Efforts are too slow,” said Akeel Al-Ataf of Hadramut province’s municipal government. “We haven’t seen any food or medicine in three days, and the relief efforts are chaotic.”

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Oct. 26 — 58 have been killed, dozens of citizens are missing and over 20,000 people are homeless due to flash floods that resulted from heavy rains in the eastern areas of Yemen including Hadramout and Al-Maharah.

In a report by Minister of Interior Mutahhar Rashad Al-Masri, the death toll from the floods in Hadramout and Al-Maharah governorates was estimated at 58 and rescue teams had been able to shelter 3,000 people whose houses were destroyed.

The Ministry of Defense declared in its latest statistics published in its electronic “September mobile” service that 1,700 houses and public buildings had collapsed and that power lines, telephone wires, roads and bridges had been cut due to floods in many areas of the two governorates.

In Al-Maharah governorate, 1,318 kilometers east of Sana’a, floods caused more than 45 fishing boats to sink, an Indian ship to break down and a cut in telecommunications in the districts of Hawf, Qishin, Shahin and Saihut due to damage to optical fiber cables and the destruction of mobile phone coverage towers.

In Hadramout governorate, located some 794 kilometers east of Sana’a, eyewitnesses said that floods are threatening the historical town of Shibam, a UNESCO world heritage site, after heavy rains resulted in the collapse of archeological buildings and had eradicated features of other historical ones.

Salem Al-Khanbashi, governor of Hadramout, said in a statement to the state-run Saba News Agency that the executive authority in Hadramout had received field notifications which indicate that a number of dead bodies are floating in the flood water.

The rescue and emergency committee formed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh last Friday has declared the governorates of Hadramout and Al-Maharah devastated areas “due to the major damage that befell them.”

Hasan Al-Lawzi, Minister of Information and member of the emergency committee, told Al-Siyassiya newspaper that the committee is currently surveying human and material damage and said that “flash floods resulting from heavy rain [had] caused huge damage to roads and bridges and cut electricity and telecommunication cables in addition to the human damage.”

(Read on …)

YO

According to the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, it is estimated that about 70 to 80 percent of Yemenis between the ages of 16 and 50 years have chewed Qat on at least one occasion. It has also been estimated that Yemenis spend about 14.6 million man-hours a day chewing Qat. This wasted time could be used in more productive ways, such as engaging in work, extracurricular activities, studying or exercising.

The report, published on the WHO’s website, indicates that nearly 90 percent of adult males chew Qat daily for three to four hours, and that more than 50 percent of females engage in this serious habit.

According to WHO reports, Qat production seriously damages the already weak Yemeni economy. Many farmers replace coffee and other useful crops with Qat trees as they yield far larger profits. More than 90,000 Qat trees were planted on Yemeni farms during the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, the report said. It is also found that about 60 percent of areas that could be used to grow cash crops are being used to cultivate Qat, which consumes huge quantities of Yemen’s already limited underground water.

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

A report by the Oil Committee at Parliament indicated that the private sector in Yemen failed to establish and build one refinery in Dhabah in Ras Isa area, despite the different privileges it was granted together with the time period lasting for eight years.

It also announced that some commercial houses seek to privatize Aden Port Refinery and accused them of playing with the numbers and distorting facts for achieving certain ends.

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

The Central Statistical Administration announced an increase in trade volume between Yemen and Gulf countries to reach YR 777 billion including the imports and exports. Compared to the previous years, 2007 has shown a noticeable increase.

Trade exchange between Yemen and Gulf countries reached in 2006 YR 552 billion, compared to YR 433 billion in 2004. The growth rate as for trade exchange has mounted in 2006-2007 to reach 4 percent.

Statistics indicate that the Yemeni market is still a consumptive market, especially when the gap between imports and exports is wide. The country’s imports from Gulf countries have reached YR 626 billion in 2007 and YR 418 billion in 2006, with an increase of 49.9 percent.

However, Yemen’s exports to Gulf countries are scant and showed only timid increases in 2007 as it reached YR 150 billion compared to YR 133 billion in 2006, with a total increase of only 12.9 percent.

This commercial deficit is influenced by Yemen’s increased growth of imports from Gulf States. Observers believe that Yemen lacks facilities and proper equipment and procedures for its exports, especially those competitive commodities including fruits, vegetables, fish and other commodities like honey and cotton.

United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia come in first place and them being the biggest exporters. Emirates came first in exports to Yemen surpassing YR 366 billion during 2007, followed by Saudi Arabia with YR 139 million. In return, Yemen’s exports to Saudi Arabia reached YR 28 billion in 2007.

IRIN

SANAA, 14 August 2008 (IRIN) - Water availability in Yemen has been worsening by the year and the government has no clear strategy on how to deal with the problem, experts have said.

They say water shortages, which affect about 80 percent of the country’s 21 million people, are exacerbated by the high fertility rate, rapid urbanisation, the cultivation of `qat’ (a mild narcotic), a lack of public awareness, and the arbitrary digging of wells.

The experts made the remarks at a symposium on 12 August in Sanaa city organised by the Sheba Centre for Strategic Studies (SCSS), a local think-tank. Entitled Water Security in Yemen: Challenges and Solutions, the symposium brought together dozens of local officials and experts on water.

Khalil al-Maqtari, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and an expert of topography, said the water situation was worsening as there was no effective strategy to manage its use.

(Read on …)

Yemen Observer

Qat chewers are on a steady rise in Yemen, especially amongst young people, where qat chewers constitute 70 percent of men and more than 30 percent of women, said Mansour al-Hawshabi, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

Al-Hawshabi reported this rise during the opening of a workshop on policies for qat in Yemen, which took place in Sana’a on Sunday. “Qat occupies large areas of agricultural land at the expense of many crops, particularly important cereals,” he said.

The prevalence of qat is considered a significant obstacle to lifting the productivity of other crops. Qat plantations are expanding by 4-6 thousand hectares annually, which demand more than 30 percent of the total water resources allocated to agriculture.

Various surveys and studies show that 85 percent of qat cultivation is concentrated in five governorates: Amran, Dhamar, Sana’a, Hajja and Ibb. “Qat does not just pose agricultural and environmental problems, but it is a significant risk to the health of people especially when using pesticides indiscriminately,” said al-Hawshabi.

Qat has become a dilemma facing the expansion of food crops to provide food security, said Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. “It is draining more than 30 percent of the water devoted to agriculture.”

“The spending on qat plants is a priority to people who put it above necessary expenses such as food, education and other important needs,” he said. “The risk indicators of qat have become clear and specific to all and we must sharpen our determination and efforts to address the problem of qat as a major challenge facing agriculture in Yemen.”

The cultivation of qat in Yemen rose from 136,138 hectares in 2006 to 141,163 hectares last year, and its production rose from 147, 444 tons to 156, 290 tons during the same period.

Qat’s popularity in Yemen has led to its excessive cultivation, depleting the country’s agricultural resources. It is estimated that production increases by about 10 to 15 percent every year. Water consumption is so high that groundwater levels in the Sana’a basins are diminishing and are expected to dry out in just a little over 10 years from now.

Yemen Post

Official statistics reveal that Yemen imports of cereals reached 3,388,326 tons over the last year at a total value of YR 194 billion, about $975 million.

According to Ministry of Trade and Industry’s report, the Yemen Company for Flour Mills & Silos is the chief importer, followed by the Yemen Economic Corporation.

(Read on …)

YT

The skyrocketing prices of wheat, cereals, and other grains have had a tremendous impact on populations reliant on the international markets to supply the needed grains, and Yemen has been affected significantly where the price of a 50-kg sack of wheat has increased from 3300 in the end of 2007 to over 7200 today. This increase affects primarily families which spend most of their income on basic foods and necessities, and now having to stretch their budgets more in order to be able to continue to afford buying the same quantities of food.

In explaining the bigger picture, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicated that the growth in global demand for grains is increasing by 3 %, while production is at lower rates, and have increased to 2.6% this year as grain producing countries slightly increase their grain plantations. This indicates that the gap in supply will continue to push the prices of grain higher, forcing grain importing countries like Yemen to rather pay a bigger bill or start searching for other sources of grain, including reliance on domestic production.

(Read on …)

Let me guess, the Saudi wheat that was donated to Yemen

ADEN

1800 tons of national goods exported to Somalia, Djibouti

Around 1800 tons of national goods were exported via Muala Sea Port in Aden City on Saturday to Djibouti and Somalia.

The goods exported to Somalia were biscuits, soap and sweets, in addition to 800 tons of wheat to Djibouti.

According to the statistics of the port, 32,752 tons of cement were unloaded in the platform of the port. The port also received on Saturday 1,115 sheep from Somalia.

Yemen uses Sudanese lands

[03 April 2008]
SANA’A, April 03 (Saba) - An official delegation is set to head next week for Sudan to discuss with Sudanese officials the executive steps of a Yemeni project for using Sudanese lands to plant wheat.

The weekly 26september paper said that the delegation will include officials from the ministry of Industry and Trade as well as businessmen.

The talks will focus on the details of the project aimed at planting wheat in the Sudanese lands to satisfy Yemen’s demand of this basic foodstuff.

The project comes within the developed Yemeni-Sudanese cooperation and amid the government efforts to diversify the resources of producing wheat whose price has recently soared.

It is noteworthy, the Sudanese government welcomed the idea and pledged to help Yemen to implement the project successfully.

40 year old guy teaching three teen-agers how to use a hand grenade in Sana’a blows himself up, killing one of the teen agrers and wounding two others.

Saba describes it as a friendly Qat session.

26 September Net

SANA’A, (26 September Net0 - A hand grenade exploded in Sana’a on Friday, killing at least two people and wound two others.

Security sources in the capital Sana’a said to 26 September Net that the first victim Foa’ad Saleh Al-Bahloli, the bomb’s owner, aged 40, had taught Ibrahim Hasan Al-Masmari, the second victim, aged 18, how to separate, install and use the bomb in one of Qaa Al-Alifi’s maqi’ils (divan for qat chewing) in the capital Sana’a.

The sources added that the two injured others, Salah Hasan Abdullah, aged 20, and Yousif Hamoud, aged 15, who were among the attendees in the maqi’il, had been wounded on the left shoulders as a result of the bomb’s shatters and be hospitalized to Al-Jumhori hospital.

Government officials are also involved in drug smuggling, gun running, child trafficking. Its not just plain old State Capture, the state has been captured by criminal gangs. And this is why the water plan never gets implemented.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, March 4 — The Committee of Agriculture and Irrigation in the Yemeni Parliament disclosed last week the implication that officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and Hodeidah governorate allowed banned pesticides to enter the country illegally through Hodeidah port.

The cargo consists of five 20 20-foot containers which contain 58,500 kiloliters of pesticides, going to Daghsan corporation warehouses in Sana’a city.

In its report, the committee said that the cargo of chemicals and poisons constitute a very dangerous risk to people’s lives, and can cause damage to the environment, plants and soil.

The committee asked for everyone who participated in letting the cargo enter Yemen to be handed over to the court for prosecution to be punished according to the Constitution and law. The report affirmed applying the punishments stipulated in law 25 for the year 1999 regarding the circulation of pesticides, on the importer Saleh Ahmed Daghsan.

The people involved in releasing the cargo of pesticides are Mohammed Ahmed Daghsan, the representative of Bin Daghsan corporation, Abdullah Shamlan, the head of the Oversight and Inspection Department in the General Department for Plants Protection. Ali Muhriz, the head of the registration department in the General Department for Plants Protection, Yassen Al-Naqeeb, the head of the Department of Oversight in the General Authority for Plants protection, and finally Omer Abdullah Al-Muqbli, a security officer for the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

According to a report issued by Parliament in June 2007, the pesticides were released from Hodeidah port’s customs department and moved to Daghsan Corporation warehouses. “However, the pesticides were supposed to be stored at Ministry of Agriculture warehouses, but they were fully packed with other goods,” the report added.

Parliament member (MP) Moqtar Sadeq Abu Rass, who is also on the Agriculture Committee, stated that the container locks were broken by Daghsan corporation. “Daghasn broke the locks and sold the pesticides, so when the Ministry of Agriculture went to claim the cargo, they found that half of it had been sold and distributed in Taiz and Al-Dhale’e governorates,” said Abu Rass.

The committee expressed its regret that the public prosecution hasn’t notified the committee about the steps it has taken concerning the matter, despite transferring the issue to the public prosecutor on February 14, 2007. “The prosecution refuses to inform us about what they have done about the issue so far. It never informs us about anything under the pretext that the judiciary is independent,” added Abu Rass.

On his part, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Mansour Al-Hawshabi confessed before Parliament the ministry’s inability to tackle pesticides smugglers, and requested the cooperation of all official authorities and people in restricting this dangerous epidemic.

During the February 26 Parliament session, Al-Hawshabi said that pesticides smuggling is ongoing and complained to the MPs that the prosecution hasn’t adjudicated in the smuggling cases that have been transferred to it from the ministry in the past. He mentioned that the ministry seized a 21-ton cargo of pesticides in Jabal Al-Nar in Taiz, and another 12 containers in Aden from an importer accused of importing a previous cargo of poisonous pesticides. He said that these issues have been transferred to the public prosecution, which hasn’t made any decision on them yet.

Al-Hawshabi added, “The problem isn’t in seizing these poisons; the stores of the ministry are full of them and using them will cause a catastrophe for the environment. What we need is to enforce the importers to get them back to their country of origin.”

Parliament neither advocated cooperating with nor to punishing the ministry. It didn’t excuse the ministry from responsibility, but suggested publishing a black list of smugglers’ names through the mass media. Moreover, the MPs asked that the officials who facilitated the passing of the banned cargo through Haradh strait be taken off the job and transferred to prosecution to be held accountable for their actions.

Two recent studies conducted at the University of Aden found that 118 kinds of pesticides are used in Yemen, mostly by qat farmers.

According to one study conducted by Abdul-Rahman Alawi bin Yehia, a researcher in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Center at the university, Yemen imports these pesticides under 555 trade names, and most of them are very dangerous.

Another study conducted by pharmacy students at the university stated that these pesticides cause chronic diseases such as cancer, behavioral changes, and liver and kidney diseases.

Update: more than 3 million people (out of 20 million Yemenis) infected. Thank goodness for the WHO. It is caused by dirty water.

Yemen Times: SANA’A, Feb. 20 — In cooperation with international organizations, Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population will conduct a four-year campaign to fight Bilharzia, Phase one of which will launch next month.

“Bilharzia is a forgotten disease that’s not a global issue,” WHO representative in Yemen Ghulam Rabbani stated Wednesday, indicating that Yemen and Sudan are the only Middle Eastern nations still suffering the disease. For this reason, WHO is conducting this campaign in Yemen.

“Bilharzia leads to incurable liver failure and, effectively, death,” Rabbani said, adding that several Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Afghanistan that suffered from the disease have succeeded in eradicating it completely through such campaigns and distributing anti-Bilharzia medicine to those infected.

“Just like it has succeeded in eradicating smallpox and polio, Yemen also can succeed in eradicating Bilharzia,” Rabbani stated.

According to WHO statistics, more than three million people in Yemen are infected with the disease, which means significant humanitarian and economic losses.

(Read on …)

Another hugely corrupt deal. Privatization is an important process for economic growth. It hasn’t gone very well at all. However, this report is very good actually in that the Parliament is investigating corruption and the media is reporting it. That’s the way it is supposed to work. Corruption is countered by transparency and accountability.

On this specific issue, the Ministry of Agriculture is an obstacle to the implementation of the water strategy, with about 90% of water used for agriculture and the vast bulk of that used in qat production. The ministries are not coordinating; some are profit centers for associated individuals while others are pushing to sustain Yemen’s viability into the future. Another example is the Health Ministry whose employees own many of the shops that sell the smuggled pharmaceuticals.

Yemen Post

A report by Agriculture, Irrigation and Fish Wealth Committee at Parliament revealed gross violations by the Supreme Committee for Privatization while selling the General Corporation for increasing genetically improved seeds as the real value was estimated at YR 1.8 billion while it was sold for YR 78.5 million with a difference of YR 1.3 billion.

The report demanded the Public Money Prosecution to act against some Ministry of Agriculture affiliates and Hadramout Deputy Governor for Wadi and Desert Affairs under corruption charges.

The corporation which was established in 1998 as a public company at a capital of YR 75 million and stretches over 6303 m2 was sold to Yemeni businessman Mohammed Al-Hadad.

In 2005, Hathramout members of parliament submitted a complaint to parliament demanding restoration of the corporation and abrogation of the selling operation; however, no action has been taken since then.

Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation is one of the ministries famous for rampant corruption especially in the Provinces Development Authority as is the case with Eastern Provinces Development Authority whose officials were accused of plundering YR 400 million together with $ 20 million under Desertification Fighting Program.

The officials of the authority now own villas and real estates in Sana’a whose total value reaches millions of dollars.

More from the Yemen Observer

The committee for agriculture, irrigation and fisheries in the Parliament has discovered a corrupt deal worth YR1,800,000,000 involving the General Company for Seed Production in Sayoun.

(Read on …)

IRIN

24 January 2008 (IRIN) - A new report by the World Bank says agriculture needs to be overhauled if income disparities are to be reduced, and poverty and hunger Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be achieved.

Entitled Agriculture for Development, the report, the 30th in a series, was released on 23 January by the World Bank office in Sanaa. In “transforming countries”, which include those in the Middle East, it said rapidly rising rural-urban income disparities and continuing extreme rural poverty were major sources of social and political tensions.

“Addressing income disparities in transforming countries requires a comprehensive approach that pursues multiple pathways out of poverty - shifting to high-value agriculture, decentralising non-farm economic activity to rural areas and providing assistance to help move people out of agriculture,” the report said.

The Sanaa launch was attended by high-ranking Yemeni officials, including the ministers of planning, water and environment, and agriculture and irrigation.

Low agricultural production

Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi, minister of planning, said the agriculture sector still had weaknesses, the main one being low production.

Photo: Mohammed al-Jabri/IRIN
According to an international report, poverty in rural areas of Yemen stands at 40.1 percent, compared to 20.7 percent in urban areas

“Agriculture is a very important sector, but it faces problems like water scarcity and climate change,” he said.

He said 31 percent of Yemeni’s workforce are farmers who contribute 20 percent to the country’s gross domestic product. The total cultivated land is 1,188,888 hectares, according to Ministry of Agriculture statistics for 2004. Crops cultivated include cereals, fruits, vegetables, pulses, fodder, and `qat’ [a mild narcotic leaf].

Cereals were cultivated on 685,491 hectares, producing 487,944 tonnes a year, while the cultivation of `qat’ covers 122,844 hectares, with an annual production of 118,207 tonnes, according to the ministry’s statistics for 2004.

`Qat’ at expense of wheat?

Minister of Water and Environment Abdul-Rahman al-Eryani said Yemen was unable to produce wheat due to its limited resources. “Water tanks built on mountainous areas irrigate `qat’, the cultivation of which increases by 10 percent a year at the cost of grain cultivation,” he said.

According to an international report released in December 2007, and prepared by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and Yemen’s government, poverty in rural areas was 40.1 percent, compared to 20.7 percent in urban areas. Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Mansour al-Hawshabi said 75 percent of Yemen’s population live in rural areas, where 40.1 percent subsist below the poverty line. The population of urban areas will increase by 12 million within 20 years, and unless unemployment is reduced, the number of the poor will get out of control, he said.

High prices, social unrest

The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects 2008, released in January, said world food prices had risen nearly 75 percent within a decade and would continue to do so in 2008. The report said countries like Yemen, Bangladesh and Egypt had liberalised or partially liberalised their domestic food markets and no longer had policy instruments to control food prices.

High prices in Yemen have led to social unrest since the presidential and local council elections in late September 2006. Several protests have been held nationwide as a result, and the latest was on 13 January in the port city of Aden, south Yemen, when five people were reportedly killed and dozens injured after clashing with security forces.

Yemen Observer

Farmers are still involved in cultivating qat trees instead of other crops.
Still popular, qat chews provide an important forum for debate and dialogue in Yemen. Nearly every Yemeni chews; even old age and toothlessness fail to stop some. Taking a closer look at the agricultural, social, community, and health effects that this plant has on qat chewers will help us understand why it is so dangerous to Yemenis.

Qat is scientifically known as Catha edulis, a medium-sized shrub or tree known for its leaves, which release stimulating substances (amphetamines) when chewed. The qat plant is known by a variety of names, such as khat and gat in Yemen, chat in Ethiopia, jaad in Somalia, and miraa in Kenya and Tanzania. Although there are still minor disputes about where qat originated, today there is little argument about its common use in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in Yemen. According to the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, it is estimated that about 70 to 80 percent of Yemenis between the ages of 16 and 50 years have chewed qat on at least one occasion. It has also been estimated that Yemenis spend about 14.6 million person-hours per day chewing qat. This is time that could be utilized in more productive ways such as engaging in work, extracurricular activities, studying or exercising.

Furthermore, Dr. Ali al-Zubaidi, a researcher, has estimated that the amount of money spent on qat has increased from YR14.6 billion in 1990 to YR41.2 billion in 1995, and this figure continues to grow. Researchers have also estimated that families spend about 17 percent of their income on qat, although the real amount of money may be greater. One of the most serious economic side effects of the habit is the cost for consumers who lie at the lower end of the economic scale. The daily expense of qat can lead to less money being available for food and other basic family needs.

(Read on …)

Two words on narco-terrorism: private docks.

National Post
Terrorist groups may be funding their activities through khat, an illegal stimulant smuggled daily into Canada, says a newly released intelligence report.

The report by the Canadian government’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre says “some part of the proceeds involved in the global khat trade possibly finances terrorism.”

Khat is an illicit drug that is wildly popular among Somali-Canadians. It originates in East Africa and the Middle East, regions that “are ‘of concern’ from a terrorism viewpoint,” the report says.

“Given that a number of terrorist organizations around the world finance their activities through the drug trade, and that much of the khat trade occurs in and emanates from a region of the world closely identified with terrorism, it is possible that some parts of the proceeds involved may end up in the hands of terrorists or their sympathizers.”

(Read on …)

I hate this statistic, IRIN:

WFP says child malnutrition rates in Yemen are among the highest in the world SANAA, 11 December 2007 (IRIN) - An international report has said child malnutrition remains a concern in Yemen as nearly one-third of children aged 2-5 are severely stunted.

Entitled Yemen Poverty Assessment, the report was released in Yemen on 3 December. Prepared by Yemen’s government, the World Bank, and UN Development Programme (UNDP), it said poverty was associated with the prevalence of severe stunting and underweight among Yemeni children. It said data on severe stunting showed a greater disparity between urban and rural children than other types of malnutrition.

Ali al-Mudhwahi, director of the family health department at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN the stunting rate stood at 53.1 percent, wasting at 12.5 percent, and underweight accounted for 45.6 percent. These three indicators, he said, were used for measuring the malnutrition status for children under five. “There are 4.1 million children under five in Yemen,” he said.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), child malnutrition rates in Yemen are amongst the highest in the world, with infant and under-five mortality rates estimated at 76 and 102 per 1,000 live births, respectively.

Qat

(Read on …)

Its the Jooos! How utterly retarded. The pesticides that are giving Yemenis cancer were banned by Yemeni lawmakers; however the banned pesticides continue to enter and be sold in Yemen due to lax import control and enforcement mechanisms, coupled with profiteering by businessmen and members of Saleh’s own administration.

26 September via Yemen Times:

Saleh expressed thanks for efforts of the National Corporation for Fighting Cancer Infections during the past four years. “I have given orders to set up a center of cancer tumors and allocated YR 100 million for operation of the cooperation annually, “he said. He also ordered the government to allocate YR 1 billion, pointing out to the reports that show around 20,000 cancer cases every year.

He asked by the Ministry of Industry and Agriculture to shoulder their responsibility to prevent dangerous insecticides as they are responsible for increasing cases of cancer diseases. Such insecticides are produced in Zionist factors and smuggled to Arab markets, he said. The leader said that doctors of the health ministry will organize a campaign to spread awareness on risks of these insecticides via various media outlets.

According to the weekly, Chairman of Trustees Council at the corporation Abdul-Wasa Hayel Saeed said he is very happy to attend the ceremony and his support for the corporation. He added that the corporation, in cooperation with health ministry and National Atomic Energy Commission, will set up a national center for cancer tumors in Al-Jamhoori Hospital in Sana’a and hope units in Hodeidah and Ibb governorates. He made clear that the works in establishing hope units in Hadramout and Taiz governorates would be finished soon. The corporation would pay further efforts to coordinate official and popular contributions to combat this disease, he said.

Yemen Times

Most Yemeni women don’t know the negative medical effects of chewing qat, especially for pregnant women who chew qat, where both mother and child face health problems. Numerous studies and campaigns call upon Yemeni society, especially women, to reduce the increasing phenomenon of female qat chewers.

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This is could be bad:

Trade Arabia

Yemeni authorities are testing farm birds for the deadly strain of the bird flu virus H5N1 after several people reported deaths of poultry at their farms, an agriculture ministry official said.

‘It will be some time before we find out, meanwhile we have banned imports from all countries with confirmed cases,’ the official said.

He said the dead birds were found in several parts of the country, without being more specific.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have culled 220,000 birds since last week after an outbreak at a poultry farm in the town of Al Kharj in the central region of the kingdom, far from its Yemen border.

UPdate: No, all is well

Doctor Galeb Aleryani, the General Livestock Manager at the Ministry of Agriculture commented that this is only a precautionary measure which will not affect the general commercial relationship between the two countries. He added, “We have received reports from different governorates of cases of bird flu.

We ordered five medical investigation teams to investigate the causes in the five governorates where they were reported, Taiz, Ebb, Lahje, Dhamar, and Omran. Initial tests show that these birds died of a very well known illness (Newcastle disease), that affects 150 birds a year. He also added that some birds might have died from environmental factors, like the cold.

Aleryani further explained that veterinary investigation teams had performed an autopsy on these birds, and confirmed that they died of natural causes, which do not constitute any threat to the public. The vets took samples in order to examine them in Sana’a, and they will announce the final results in the middle of next week.

Yemen Times

Yemen is still an agricultural based economy, employing almost half the workforce and providing livelihoods for over two-thirds of the population. However, the agricultural sector is facing enormous challenges that obstruct its development, ranging from policy issues, to trade, production, and water issues. This report sheds the light on the recent developments in the Agricultural sector and the outlook for upcoming Years.

Yemen’s Agricultural Economy is Shrinking. The contribution of Agricultural to the GDP is falling from 18 percent in 2004 with an expectation to drop to 13 percent in 2007, while production of crops in the country has been decreasing, along with the landmass allocated for agricultural activity, and therefore the Agricultural Sector is also employing less people, and in turn affecting the livelihoods of more than twelve million people.

(Read on …)

SANA’A, Nov. 14 — A project to set up a radiation treatment device for cancer was hindered after its contract ended. The project was supposed to be completed last September.

The delay has deprived thousands of cancer patients from utilizing the system, one of the most sophisticated medical devices for cancer treatment. Statistics indicate that one third of Yemen’s population is threatened by cancer.

In a decision made in 2006, the government approved to purchase the accelerator device used in the cancer treatment center at Al-Jumhury Hospital in Sana’a. This device is valued at $ 2,660.435. It is the first device of its kind to enter Yemen.

The project was hindered from the beginning, according to exdirector of Al-Jumhury Hospital Nabeel Dhuba’n. In an interview with the 26 September newspaper, Dhuba’n stated that there was a problem between the Supreme Committee of Tenders, the Ministry of Health and the National Committee for Atomic Energy. The project was also hindered after the government approved paying a private firm to implement the project.

Due to the obstruction, cancer remains an obsession worrying Yemenis’ lives.

Related: 70% of cancer caused by pesticides, study

SANA’A, Nov. 13 — Prime Minister Ali Mujawar has formed a committee to study grievances submitted by several agricultural pesticide importers against Yemen’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The committee, which consists of the Ministries of Agriculture and Irrigation, Industry and Commerce, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, will investigate the legality of actions by the Agriculture Ministry, as well as identify those pesticides banned under a law preventing the entry of such compounds from unspecified sources.

(Read on …)

What should that number actually be, one million

YT

almotamar.net - Director of Agriculture and Irrigation Office in Hadramout Valley on Wednesday said President Ali Abdullah Saleh has given his orders for the reclamation of agricultural land, allocation of YR400 million for that purpose and to distribute pieces of land among the youth and the unemployed graduates in addition to providing them with palm shoots of high quality production for planting them in a number of the Valley districts.

(Read on …)