Dhamar farmers revive coffee plantations after years of abandonment
Posted by Zawya
Yemen Times
25 July 2010


DHAMAR -- After persuasion from the local council, many farmers in Dhamar governorate have agreed to remove qat and corn from their farms and grow coffee trees instead.

The local authorities convinced the farmers by facilitating the coffee marketing process and ensuring that the coffee would be sold at an attractive price. This was a successful policy because farmers in Dhamar had abandoned coffee farming across the past year when the price went down dramatically. The governorate has now insured a 300 percent increase in coffee prices, making one kilo of dry coffee cherries worth eight dollars.

"There has been an increasing demand on coffee seedlings in recent years as many farmers are now expanding their coffee plantations. This happened as coffee prices increased, and now I am providing seedlings to many farmers from all over the governorate, especially places that were famous for coffee in the past," said Mohammed Al-Dhabobi, a coffee seedling nursery owner in the Al-Nobitain area of Dhamar.

One of the coffee farmers, Mohammed Ali Hifthallah, from Otma district in Dhamar, said that he started with 200 seedlings three years ago. The state-run rural development project gave him 30 sacks of cement to help fix the ground water tank he uses to water the coffee trees.

"I am expecting to see a harvest next year. My area used to produce a lot of coffee in the past, but many farmers were negatively affected by soil erosion and highways that cut into their land, so they stopped growing coffee. Now there is a trend to go back to coffee plantations with encouragement from the state," said Hidhallah.

The state has created several initiatives across the country to replace qat with coffee. One of these projects is based in Dhamar. Agriculture engineer Kamal Shamsan, the project's coordinator, said that local authorities representing the agriculture office and the rural development project endorse coffee farming and distribute coffee seedlings to the farmers along with tools, and they also create awareness activities to help farmers optimally benefit from their land. The state also supports farmers in infrastructure projects, such as water tanks for their lands.

"Dhamar governorate has a good climate that is suitable for growing coffee, and these areas used to be famous for their coffee trees, to the extent that farmers would even market their produce in other governorates," said Shamsan.

He added that the locals are now growing plants that produce a specific round type of coffee bean. This variety stores well for long periods of time, resists pests, and is popular because of its quality and flavor.

Through this initiative, three associations were created and supported with tools and equipment, allowing them to help in marketing coffee by acting as mediators between the farmers and the traders.

These associations are already selling coffee to large corporations such as Al-Ezi and Al-Kabous.

Executive director of the rural development project in Dhamar, Engineer Abdulkarim Abdullah Al-Eryani, said that the project distributed more than 71,730 hundred seedlings to 648 farmers between 2006 and 2010.

The project also helped to establish or repair 296 water tanks to collect rainwater for irrigating coffee trees. They provided the farmers with more than seven thousand cement sacs, agricultural equipment, and training on how to use them.

"We are aiming to encourage coffee farming and to get farmers interested in diversifying their agricultural production in order to enhance their living standards. This also means that they need to change their habits and lifestyles, and we are helping them do this through training and raising awareness," said Al-Eryani.

© Yemen Times 2010

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