The Political Economy of Agriculture and Agricultural Policy in Yemen

Abstract

Introduction In 2012 the World Food Programme (WFP) stated that “ten million Yemenis, nearly half of the population, are food insecure.” Food insecurity is primarily a rural problem concerning 37% of the rural population. From the end of 2011, Oxfam and the WFP were calling for the supply of emergency food aid to upwards of one quarter of the population. In the wake of the economy's shrinking by 11% in 2011, the overall agricultural sector has been particularly affected by the shutting down of basic supplies and the shortage of inputs – with an estimated drop in output of 16%. Clearly there is no indigenous short-term solution to food insecurity in Yemen in sight: food aid will be required. But it is telling that the food aid will be, in the WFP's packages, 100% wheat grain in a country where sorghum, millet and barley were, until the 1970s, the staple grains, wheat being used for special dishes. In order to analyze the development challenges and solutions for agriculture and food production in Yemen, we shall begin by setting forth what is known about the changes in agricultural production since Yemen became integrated into the global economy from the 1960s onwards. This is followed by an analysis of the relationship between these changes and the policies and institutional frameworks that accompanied them. An examination of policy since 2011 completes our analysis. The scale of the 2011 protests in Yemen should not be forgotten: Marieke Transfeld has argued that they were in…