Agriculture Development Strategy [Archives:2000/51/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamali
Yemen which, depends heavily on oil exports, faces many difficulties in benefiting from the international trade as an essential factor for the development of its economy. Classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, if Yemen does not promote its agricultural, marine products and encourage production of primary products for export, it will not move forward.
Horizons of Agricultural Promotion
Developing of agriculture can help increase production and organize internal and external marketing. Revenues of agricultural products constitute the major income-source for many families in addition to its being a source of foodstuff production meeting demands of the increasing population. Despite the low level of agricultural production and its fluctuating revenues, promotion of agriculture seems to be provided with the suitable ground.
Among the most important factors to further agriculture are development of water resources, exploitation of countryside waters, improving agricultural equipment, conducting scientific surveys and studies on soil, climate and identifying the crops that are suitable for cultivation during the whole year.

Self-sufficiency.
Achieving family self-sufficiency is one of the priorities of promoting agricultural production. Statistics indicate that agricultural production level falls every year. Farmers sometimes stop cultivation owing to losses, lack of water, difficulty of marketing, high costs of production, etc.
Sources of the Supreme Council for Exports Promotion say that weak marketing hinders exportation of agricultural products. However, the sources add that the production of vegetables and fruits increased from 6000 tons in 1996 to 54000 tons in 1999 and that it is expected to rise to 100000 tons in the beginning of 2001.
Yemen produces about 130000 tons of grapes, 170 thousand tons of wheat, 62 thousand tons of corns, 56 thousand of barley, 77 thousand tons of seeds, 747 thousand tons of vegetables, 35 thousand tons of melon and 120 thousand tons of watermelon, 554 thousand tons of fruits, etc.

Random Marketing
The above numbers are not fairly distributed to local markets according to population density. This production suffers from random marketing and lack of companies to market it.

Encouraging Exports.
During 2000 the Fund to Support Agricultural and Marine Production spent about 30 million rials in support of export samples of agricultural and marine products and participation in foreign exhibitions. It also financed 107 agricultural projects in 1998 at the cost of about 973 million rials. However, the private sector indicates that this support is not enough to promote agricultural production.

Strategic Infrastructure for Marketing Needed
To eradicate the difficulties facing agricultural marketing, specialists suggest establishment of a strategic infrastructure on the basis of exempting materials used in production such as seeds, etc. from taxation. Transportation costs need also to be enhanced. Some specialists are of the view that the Fund should undertake 50% of the total cost of air shipping and 30% of the cost of land shipping and similar part of sea transport. It should also provide export harbors with the necessary equipment for quality control.
For the above, marketing seems to be a complicated procedure that requires a lot of facilities and human abilities to cope with the local and international market changes. Therefore, there must be a clear role of the banks specialized in supporting production and marketing.
To promote and protect production, the authorities concerned must undertake clear and specified responsibilities to enable local agricultural products to cover local needs and invade the foreign markets to get hard currency.

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