Food security in Yemen: The problems of today and the prospects for tomorrow [Archives:2006/1003/Business & Economy]
By: Mahuob Al-Kamali
& Raidan Al-Saqqaf
[email protected]
It has become clear that the economic and social developments which are taking place in Yemen during the past decades also have a negative impact on food production and the agriculture sector in the country, leading the country towards an acute problem represented in a low levels of self-sufficiency and an increase of dependency on foreign imports to satisfy our food needs.
This problem holds the potential to develop into a real crisis in the event of political, social or economic instability or in the event of natural disaster or catastrophe causing interruption of food supplies from the international market to the importing countries such as Yemen and in turn supply shortage, especially in any case of political or economic sanctions.
The results of field surveys conducted in Yemen during the past years reveal that 17.6 percent of the population is unable to get the minimum level of daily calorie requirement in their diet, and that 87 percent of the people living on less than US $2 per day reside in the country side and are most vulnerable and worst affected.
Such indicators point to the difficulty in achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and more intense increased efforts are needed to improve food security, and reducing levels of malnutrition indicators in Yemen especially among the young.
The Problem
Statistical indicators show widespread malnutrition among children and infants. Surveys say about 52 percent of children younger than five years old suffer chronic malnutrition. This percentage even increases to 56 percent for children living in rural areas, comparing to 40 percent of children living in urban areas.
Furthermore, the proportion of underweight children amounts to 46 percent of the total number of children. The figure reaches 50 percent in rural areas compared to a rate of 36 percent in the urban areas. This percentage increases to reach a high of 52.1 percent in mountainous regions.
The reason for the deterioration in levels of nutrition to several economic factors such as low income levels, the disruption of families dependent on the remittances of expatriates-impact of the second Gulf War, the high rate of inflation and the allocation of a relatively high part of household expenditure on consumption of qat. Statistics show that qat accounts an average of 11.2 percent of average household expenditure against 52.9 percent of expenditure for food.
Food Production
There has been an increase in consumption of food in general and of grains in particular, due to the increase in population growth, according to official reports. Moreover, consumption patterns are in constant change with an increase of consumption during the month of Ramadan.
However there has been a decline in domestic production of grains from about 765.3 thousand tons in 1990 to 672.2 tons in 2000; parallel to that a decline was seen in the growing lands of grains from 844.8 thousand hectares to 619.6 thousand hectares during the same period. Despite that, there has been an expansion of agricultural areas from 1,121 thousand hectares in 1990 to 1,280 thousand hectares. This increase of 14 percent was in the areas of cereal crops and what constitute a comparative advantage of vegetables and fruits, cash crops and fodder.
The areas planted with vegetables increased from 52 thousand hectares to 62 thousand hectares during the same period and an increased production was also witnessed from 696 thousand tons to 766 thousand tons.
Critical Food Situation
Some troubling signals emerged during the month of Ramadan of this year 2006 which may lead to a catastrophe for the Yemeni citizens manifested in the sudden and continues rise of prices of commodities in the Yemeni market, especially in basic commodities (wheat, rice, flour and sugar).
For instance, price of bread increased 100 percent in some cities, particularly in the city of Hodeida, where the price of bread has skyrocketed 100 percent of its former price and hence the selling price rose from YR 5 to YR 10 without any increase to the weight of the bread. The reason behind that was said to be the increase of flour price from YR 2700 for 50 Kg to YR 3200 before Ramadan.
As such we face a challenge to secure food which requires the improvement of our natural resources productivity in both high production areas and margin areas and paying attention to the provision of food in all areas where the nexus between the spread of poverty among the population and the fluctuation in production rise from one year to another.
Food Imports
According to economists, it constitutes a huge risk for Yemen to continue to depend on imports to solve food consumption problems, as imports of grains and its derivatives increased from about US $218 million in 1990 to over US $313 million in 2005.
Moreover, the rate of self-sufficiency of grains accounted for only 37.6 percent, while an increase of imported food rose from US $537 million in 1990 to more than US $726 million this year which leave us in a critical situation of food security.
Future Challenges
Official reports confirm the Yemeni government faces several challenges due to population growth and consumption volume increase where the problem is not only about the increase of the price of the bread, but extends to other issues which will require improvement of the food security level in Yemen.
Some of these challenges are:
– The weakness of food crops efficiency and productivity, limited availability of agricultural and veterinary services and the weak attention paid to the development of the capacities of rural women.
– The scarcity of capabilities and the absence of any forms of encouraging the cultivation of food crops which require less water.
– Limited opportunities for financing and lending to agricultural producers, fishermen, rural development projects and productive assets and modern technical possession.
– Difficulty in the maintenance and rehabilitation of agricultural terraces and the limitation of soil erosion and desertification.
– The weakness of capabilities to develop rural areas and to improve the living conditions of the population in rural areas.
– The absence of policies that limit qat growing areas, which has been grown at the expense of food crops due to its attractive high returns in comparison to food crops returns.
– Low level of coverage for health care services, maternal and child health, particularly in rural areas of Yemen and the limited support for nutrition programs, school health and the basic services to the family health.
Actions to improve food Security
The Yemeni government adopted many policies and programs designed to raise the food security level in the context of many national documents for the coming years, however, its efforts with the private sector failed to stop the escalation of the sudden rise in prices.
The private sector justified rising prices with the increase of costs in the transfer of food to the local markets, however, this claim was denied by the ministries of transport, trade and industry.
The Yemeni government confirms its efforts towards to secure food for citizens at suitable prices; however, indicators show an exacerbation of the crisis is very alarming and disturb the living society of Yemen which has become dependent on the provision of nutrition from grains imported from abroad and by the private business sectors.
On the other hand, the private sector seems careless upon the rise in prices in the Yemeni market even though goods supply is much more than the demand and justify that with the rise in global prices, claims that were also denounced strongly by the General Consumer Protection Association.
Therefore, the government plays a major role and is supposed to undertake studied mechanisms to overcome the problem of food security in the future and activating its plans in this area, those include:
– The Third Five-Year Plan for economic and social development aims to increase agricultural production in order to contribute to a higher level of food security, and to improve farm income and the alleviation of poverty and reduction of unemployment.
– Strategic agricultural and food security which aims at the enhancement of food production, the improvement of statistical information on the agricultural sector, the removal of price distortions, the enhancement of market efficiency, increasing income support for the poorest, and to enhance the efficiency of social assistance for the poor.
– Public health strategy under the Second Five-Year Plan, which aims at raising the level of coverage for health services through a variety of health programs to combat malnutrition, reducing infant mortality and upgrading services programs of maternal and child health.
– The Strategy for Poverty Alleviation which seeks to achieve many goals such as upgrading social services specially health care services, through the application of the health areas, focusing in rural areas, as well as the infrastructure services of water, electricity and education.
– Enhancing the partnership with donors and international institutions to support techniques and methods that contribute to the improvement of agricultural production and crop productivity, preservation of water consumption and increasing the efficiency of its usage as well as the implementation of programs to develop water stocks of possible sources, support and encourage farmers to use modern irrigation methods and reducing waste through the means of traditional irrigation, and the development of policies and effective mechanisms to support the delivery of agriculture and fisheries. In order to upgrade the production of food crops and fish wealth development and preservation in addition to the activation of population policies and reduce fertility rates, through the implementation of projects to support poor families and encourage them to continue education particularly females and encourage families to delay the age of marriage, as well as supporting special programs to raise the level of nutrition and maternal and child health coverage, upgrading health care services in the direction of achieving the goal of the Millennium and face various diseases caused by malnutrition.
In this regard, many of the Arab countries and other countries of the developing world in Africa, Asia and Latin America have preceded us in finding solutions to problems of food security through agricultural research, field testing and laboratory procedures to ensure the significant contribution of the agricultural sector in the provision of food for the population.
One of those solutions and procedures was to identify the possibility of bridging the deficit in the balance of the food gap by reducing the importation of some goods such as wheat, after finding out possibilities of replacing those with other alternatives in order to use them as replacements to produce the same products with the similar characteristics and advantages that is not less in quality and which may even be superior in terms of its benefits.
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