Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Associate professor in Agricultural Economics, Sana'a University, Yemen
2
Associate professor in Agricultural Economics, Sana'a university, Yemen
3
Assistant professor in Agricultural Development, Thamar university, Yemen
Abstract
The study aim is at diagnosing the food security realty and measuring the food gap in Yemen. Descriptive analysis is used for published and unpublished secondary data about agricultural areas, production, exports and imports for nearly all cash cereal crops. The data was taken from the Central Statistics Organization and General Department of Statistics in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation covering the period from 1990 to 2019.
Based on the descriptive analysis, it was concluded that Yemen produces many agricultural crops, primarily grains, such as sorghum, wheat, maize and barley, as well as fodder, fruits, vegetables, legumes and cash crops (tobacco, cotton, sesame, coffee, etc.). slight improvement in production rates by not exceed 3% took place. This rate does not only meet population needs for food, but also cannot keep up with the current needs of food to be covered, due to the dramatic increase of population growth rates that reached about 3.02%. Moreover, the scarcity of water resources is the vital factor that limits any developments in agriculture and has become a major obstacle for developing and increasing agricultural production rates.
In spite of the existence of cultivable agricultural areas in the Republic, the water resource does not help and becomes a challenge. In addition, agricultural lands have been fragmented, traditional agricultural practices are used and inadequate and inappropriate agricultural inputs. Investment decrease, labor migration especially from rural areas to urbans, price fluctuations, inadequate supporting services, such as agricultural extension and research, in addition to marketing problems because of infrastructure weakness as roads, collection points, and cold stores all these factors deteriorated the agricultural production and decrease its rates.
All indicators show that there is a severe lack of food security for 7.6 million people. Those who suffer from malnutrition is about 2 million persons.
Thus, it is concluded that it becomes crucial and necessary to pay adequate attention to the food production sector to keep pace with population growth and meet the population's food needs.
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