SANAA, Nov. 17 (Saba) - Yemeni people focuses on five strategic priorities: Policy development, strategic planning, and strengthening agricultural information systems; Improved efficiency of the agro-food sector and enhanced agricultural and fisheries production and productivity, food safety and food and nutrition security; Development, conservation and sustainable management, and efficient utilization of natural, agricultural and marine resources; Value addition, agro-processing marketing and trade, and promoting private sector role of these spheres; Sustainable livelihoods and enhanced food and nutrition security for vulnerable rural communities, and improved disaster risk reduction.

Yemen, with its wide range of arable climatic zones, has the greatest potential for agricultural development of any nation on the Arabian Peninsula, agriculture is an important part of the economy (accounting for 17% of GDP in 2001), despite the lack of arable land, scarcity of water, periodic droughts, and difficult terrain, employment in the agricultural sector accounts for more than 64% of the workforce, but with only 3% of its land area arable, Yemen's potential for agricultural self-sufficiency is very remote, as of 2001, Yemen imported $857.2 million in agricultural products.

Traditionally, Yemen was famous for its coffee, shipped from the port of Al-Mukha, from which the English word mocha derives, the main cash crop is qat, a mild stimulant chewed by many Yemenis on a daily basis, but not exported significantly because it is highly perishable. Industrial farming of fruits and vegetables, using modern irrigation techniques, provides a level of production to nearly satisfy domestic demand, as a high-cost producer, Yemen is not yet able to internationally compete in marketing its produce, especially since such exports are often blocked at the borders.

Agriculture output in 1999 (in 1,000 tons) included sorghum, 321; tomatoes, 248; wheat, 144; grapes, 160; bananas, 88; seed cotton, 25; sesame seed, 18; coffee, 12; and cotton, 8.

Agricultural production is the single most important contributor to Yemen's economy, accounting for 20 percent of GDP, the agricultural sector provides approximately 58 percent of the country's employment. The labor-intensive sector is largely underdeveloped and inefficient, as a result of soil erosion, the high cost of credit and land, a lack of investment, and the scarcity of water, most of the cultivated land is irrigated and dependent on groundwater, but high demand could exhaust water supplies by 2008, although agricultural output has increased steadily in the past few years, crop yields remain low relative to those produced by comparable countries.

Yemen’s difficult terrain, limited soil, inconsistent water supply, and large number of microclimates have fostered some of the most highly sophisticated methods of water conservation and seed adaptation found anywhere in the world, making possible the cultivation of surprisingly diverse crops, the most common crops are cereals such as millet, corn (maize), wheat, barley, and sorghum; myriad vegetables from a burgeoning truck farm industry have appeared on the market in recent years, there has also been extensive cultivation of fruits—both tropical (mangoes, plantains, bananas, melons, papayas, and citrus) and temperate (pears, peaches, apples, and grapes).

The two main cash crops in the northern highlands are coffee (Coffea arabica) and qat ,the coffee trade, which began in the 16th century, was originally based on Yemeni coffee, and, for centuries, coffee was the most important and renowned export of Yemen, the port city of Mocha—from which a distinctive style of coffee takes its name—was the point from which most of Yemen’s coffee was exported between the 16th and 18th centuries, before more-economical plantation cultivation was introduced in other parts of the world, in Yemen the coffee tree grows best in the middle highlands, at elevations of 4,500 to 6,500 feet (1,400 to 2,000 metres), where qat also flourishes, the latter is an evergreen shrub whose young leaves, which contain an alkaloid, are chewed as a mild stimulant.

The production and consumption of qat occupy a prominent position in the culture and economy of Yemen. Increased affluence has allowed a growing section of the population to indulge in its use, which the government has attempted—with little success—to discourage. Greater demand has fueled a substantial increase in qat acreage.

Although older coffee terraces are often converted to qat as their productivity declines, much of the land being devoted to qat was formerly considered marginal for commercial agricultural purposes and now benefits from regular soil-enhancement programs and terrace-maintenance efforts. Beginning in the 1970s, the cultivation of cotton—both in the Tihāmah coastal plain in the north and in the coastal plain east of Aden—was strongly supported by the respective national governments, and for a while it contributed significantly to national income, at the end of the 20th century, a significant decline in world cotton prices, as well as the high costs of initiation and development, meant that the Yemeni cotton industry was not competitive.

The typical Yemeni farmer raises at least some poultry and livestock, typically regional varieties of chickens, goats, sheep, or cattle, agricultural aid programs sponsored by Western countries in the 1970s and ’80s introduced new varieties of dairy and beef cattle in the more temperate regions of the north, but Yemen still imports much of the livestock and dairy and poultry products it consumes. Another important economic development has been the growth of both the artisanal and the industrial fishing industries, the waters of the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden are extraordinarily rich in a wide variety of commercially desirable fish and crustaceans.

The export of oil generates a major portion of national income and government revenues, oil and natural gas were first discovered in commercial quantity in North Yemen on the edge of the eastern desert near Maʾrib in 1984 by the Hunt Oil Company, two years later, oil was found by a state corporation of the Soviet Union in the south.

Continuing today in Yemen are traditional handicraft industries that achieved great renown in the past for the quality of their products: jewelry, especially silver and gold filigree; leatherwork; carpets; glass; utensils, especially for cooking; daggers and other metalwork.

Most of these manufacturers were designed as import-substitution enterprises, producing such items as cement, aluminum ware, plastic products, paints, textiles, furniture, cooking oil, foodstuffs, soft drinks, and tobacco products; some have since become significant contributors to the national income, much of new manufacturing in recent decades has been related to transportation and communications infrastructure: road building, the construction of electrical power stations, electrification, and the stringing of telephone lines.

Written by Mona Zaid