SANAA, May 24 (Saba) -The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation aims to raise the productivity and quality of coffee and reach its exports to about 50,000 tons by 2025, through the strategy of developing this important cash crop.
The strategy aims to increase the area cultivated with coffee and increase its productivity, and to direct research towards this crop to achieve the highest productivity and maintain the quality of the product and thus increase the hard currency for the benefit of the national economy.
The coffee crop production development strategy for the period 2019-2025 includes the production and cultivation of 13 million seedlings, increasing the area by 5,000 and 200 hectares by the end of the period, and increasing the production volume from 19,286 tons now to 50,424 tons by 2025.
Under the strategy, the area of coffee cultivation in Yemen will increase from 34,000 hectares to 43,000 hectares during the same period, and exports will increase from 3,000 tons to 40,441 tons by 2025.
The strategy's operational plan focuses on producing 1 million seedlings per year and distributing them to farmers in coffee-growing areas, and establishing nurseries specializing in seedling production in areas of cultivation of up to 15 central nurseries and 150 village nurseries sufficient with large nurseries to produce 2 million seedlings per year, as well as providing the necessary production requirements over a period of years.
The strategy also works to rehabilitate existing nurseries, provide the necessary production supplies annually, build and construct water tanks and water barriers to harvest rainwater and provide supplementary irrigation systems for coffee crops.
Farmers will be requalified for the use of modern methods in coffee crop transactions and pest control and fertilization methods to increase production and improve quality.
According to the strategy, guidance and awareness programs on improving production and quality will be prepared and implemented in four centres in coordination with the private sector, in addition to encouraging the establishment of agricultural cooperatives specialized in the development of coffee production.
The strategy focuses on encouraging the establishment of agricultural cooperatives specialized in the development of coffee production and the development of export competitiveness in foreign markets through participation in international exhibitions and regular meetings of the World Coffee Organization, as well as seeking sources of funding for the integrated crop management project and opening a coffee office in the Ministry of Industry and Trade to improve export activities.
According to the strategy, the development and productivity of coffee in Yemen faces many challenges, most notably the scarcity of rainwater and the limited agricultural land in the highlands and the transformation of much of the land of coffee cultivation into qat cultivation.
There is also difficulty in transferring modern technology in coffee production and limited investment in this aspect, as well as the lack of specialized research in the field of coffee.
As a result of these difficulties, the production process of this important strategic and monetary crop has deteriorated since the 18th century, resulting in Yemen's decline in the list of coffee exporters from first place in the 17th century to the current 30th place in 51 countries.
The coffee crop can be relied upon to provide a large amount of hard currency to import most of the food needs needed to cover the food gap needed for food security.
Based on the comparative advantage of Yemeni coffee and the increase in global demand for this crop, the coffee trade is the second commodity in the world to be traded after oil.
Yemen has been one of the most important producers of coffee crop in the past six centuries, with Yemenis trading in coffee when it was one of the most important agricultural and commercial commodities.
Europe was the main market for Yemeni coffee and at that time its price reached more than three times the price that was in circulation, however the rise in its price did not affect domestic demand and coffee became one of the most important beverages in many European countries.
In view of the increasing demand and steady quantities produced, this has encouraged a number of foreign companies to transport coffee from Yemen and plant it in other countries, resulting in an increase in the number of coffee-producing countries to more than 70 countries, and the quantities produced in those countries have increased, relying on modern agricultural and industrial methods, and in return, the quantities produced in Yemen have decreased.
Mona.M