Awakening begins [Archives:2007/1107/Opinion]
By: Mohammed Al-Ariqi
“The sharper the crisis is, the easier it will be solved.” Will this famous saying apply to our agricultural situation to which closer attention was drawn following the rising prices of imported wheat? The sudden hike in the price of imported wheat and flour has placed the government on the face of an intricate problem that never accepts controversy, philosophy or political bargains. It is a problem related with the bread of 21 million souls. Realizing such a complicated problem, the government started to search for possible solutions to it in order not to let the crisis exacerbate. One of the suggested solutions is paying attention toward the agricultural sector.
It is a kind of ungratefulness that we abandoned our agricultural lands and let wheat and flour prices go higher, and then discovered in an assessment review that our farms, which once had been producing various crops turned into a wasteland and that wheat production has declined unexpectedly, compared to production of the 1980s. This means that we have never reached any progress in the area of crops agriculture and left fertile lands and rare water resources for qat plantation, thus helping qat markets to be ten times more than crops and grains markets.
The first indicator of awakening, following rises of imported wheat prices, is represented by the government's seriousness to take a number of incentive procedures for boosting the agricultural sector and increasing the domestic production of grains. The government also allocated YR 1 billion from the Fund to Boost Agricultural & Fisheries Production for grains producers, and supported the General Corporation for Agricultural Services in order to provide the necessities of agricultural production, buy equipments and fertilize seeds.
The correct and appropriate awakening starts with having a fuller understanding of the problem, which is primarily responsible for grains production decline. At this point, the role of scientific information comes in order not to let other doors open for corruption and randomness.
There are several phenomena, which reveal that we mishandled our agricultural lands, and therefore, we have to give top priority to limiting such phenomena. Yemen is famous for agriculture, but we could not exploit our fertile soil in a proper way, thereby making it turn into a wasteland. Most of the agricultural terrains have been spoiled by negligence, coupled with ongoing construction of houses, which consumed much of the agricultural lands. And, as we did not pay any attention to rural development, many farmers deserted their farms while the remainder of them shifted their attention toward qat plantation.
Over the recent years, we appeared to support foreign farmers through increasing wheat import from other countries, and at the same time quit backing domestic wheat producers. We are also responsible for permitting an excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers that harmed the soil. All these are some of the phenomena that require us to suggest practical and legal solutions to them and increase people awareness about their harmful effects.
Now, we are optimistic that the government takes serious procedures for encouraging farmers to grow crops, and only scores and indicators can be a clear-cut evidence of the government's seriousness to boost the agricultural production. This also requires thorough information about the domestic production of grains, and in case this production increases after three or four years, we can say that the government is successful in its agricultural programs.
Source: Al-Thawra State-run Daily
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