Abdalsalam Fadl, a 28-year-old father of three children, lives with his family in the Fayoush Village of Tuban District in Lahj Governorate. After graduating from the Accounting Department at Aden University, Abdalsalam found a job in a company in Aden city, which is 50 kilometers away from his village. After a while, Abdalsalam resigned due to the distance and low wage scale. With job opportunities being very limited in his small village, he was unable to find a job and hence became unemployed.
Tuban District is known for its arable land. The majority of its inhabitants work in agriculture. However, the conflict, along with the economic recession that followed, limited their access to seeds and farming supplies, forcing them to abandon their farms. Like the rest of the families in his village, Abdalsalam’s family depended on agriculture as the primary source of income for decades.
“In my family, generations one after the other, we’ve worked in farming the lands we inherited from our ancestors,” says Abdalsalam. “Farming isn’t just a source of income for us, it is a legacy, and we are always proud of our farmlands. We used to grow different crops of vegetables and fruits and sell them in the local market. Due to the drought and increasing irrigation water prices, our crops dried up. We had to sell most of our lands at a knockdown price to pay for the debts that burdened us. We couldn’t even cultivate the remaining lands because of the increasing costs of agricultural inputs. For instance, the local market often lacks quality seeds, fuel, and irrigation water, so farmers have to buy them at a high price that we can’t afford,” he adds.
Yemen has been facing a decline in agricultural productivity, further exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition in the country, with long-term and irreversible effects on future generations. Most Yemeni farmers do not have access to the agricultural inputs they need to grow successfully. Inflated prices and fuel shortages impede farmers’ access to much-needed services such as irrigation, transportation, and electricity. Instability and movement restrictions have further disrupted access to quality seeds, supply chains, and markets.