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If there are lessons to be learned from ancient agricultural practices, we first must reconstruct these practices so that we may compare them to contemporary situations. Archaeological research offers the only hope of reconstructing economic and social practices of people who left no written records or whom history has ignored, including the vast majority of all farmers who ever lived in Yemen. Since they cannot directly observe non-living people, archaeologists must rely on analysis and inte... more...

Yemen’s regional diversity, of which we are all aware, associated with a diversity of social classes, land tenure and legal practices, even though Islam, with its various interpretations, remains the common reference. Nevertheless, as an ethnologist, I will show how presentation and analysis of materials concerning a very specific valley can lead to a comparative reflection and to wider questions.Many years have passed since I carried out this survey in a valley from Sacadah area and what is described here may have to date changed now. This is precisely the concerned topic of this discussion: the urgent need to become aware of the rapidity of current changes. The disruptions which occurred over the last decades are well known and give forewarning of the next ones, if no one does anything about it. During the survey itself, some evolution was already expected: higher market dependence, decrease of food crops and depletion of water resources due to overspreading of wells.This small valley, Wādī cAkwān, is located in the high plateau, in the far northern areas of Yemen. In between low mountains, it stretches itself upon some 5 km, at 1600 m high. From upstream to downstream sides of the valley, men from different hamlets, set up a complex system of dams, derivations, canalisations in order to irrigate their lands in times of floods, and, during other periods, with water extracted from wells. more...

Stakeholders Water is a precious good, basic to all life. Therefore, sharing water means first of all sharing the water between different stakeholders, Man being just one among them. Human needs may absorb up to 40% of an ecosystem without stressing it. Nature60% animalsplantsWater 70%irrigationMan40% household10%industry20%religion1% It is essential that people leaves enough water to nature in order to preserve the local climate, keep a high biodiversity and perpetuate a well-functioning eco... more...

After only eight years the right answers to the right questions One of the aims of this seminar is improving the situation of the Yemeni agriculture by bringing back into discussion traditional farming knowledge. In explaining to you why I think that traditions going back to the “Arabia Felix” period are also a burden for agricultural development I am something of a spoil-sport, but I hope that this contribution at least helps to make a lively seminar with a fruitful outcome. When I was in Ye... more...

In Yemen, as in many developing countries, grain production, grain import and grain storage play significant roles in food security. Underground storage pits (local name: madāfin) have been in use since ancient times and are still an attractive option for many. Storage pits offer the advantages of relative easy construction, safety from theft, good thermal insulation, and protection from rodent attack and insect infestation. Sorghum is the main crop traditionally grown in many parts of Yemen,... more...

The Republic of Yemen is located in the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula, at 12-20oN and 41-54oE, and bordered to the north by Saudi Arabia, to the south by the Arabian Sea, to the east by Oman and to the west by the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab. In the Red and Arabian seas are 112 islands, the biggest of which is Suqutrā. Yemen can be divided into four topographic regions: the coastal areas, the western highlands, the eastern plateau, and the Empty Quarter (al-Rubc al-Khalī), in additi... more...

Lahj, a region of southern Yemen near Aden, is a makhlāf related to Lahj bin Wā’il bin al-Ghūth bin Qatin bin cUrayb bin Zuhayr bin ’Ayman bin al-Humayc bin Himyar bin Saba’ bin Yashjub bin Yacrub bin Qahtān. The region lies in the southeast of Yemen, just north of Aden, through which runs the well-known Wādī Tuban where is located the famous Himyari dam sadd cArāyis, also known as Lahj dam, built at the time of al-Tabābacah. Shaikh Fadl bin cAlī al-cAbdalī founded Mashyakhah al-cAbādil follo... more...

Sustainable agriculture is achieved by using acquired concepts and experiences better to manage natural sources toward a state of constant and sustainable production. Farming systems developed through history to provide man’s basic needs. Through their developmental stages, agrarian systems gained by experiment and experience the knowledge to adapt to their natural circumstances of production and to preserve natural sources while achieving constant and sustainable productivity. Development of... more...

Social implications of water distribution in the ancient oasis of Ma’rib It is unnecessary to repeat here the obvious about the massive infrastructure of the so-called great dam of Ma’rib and its sluice gates, the obvious having been stated so many times before. Instead, I would like to draw attention to some implications that these physical constructions had for the farming communities. The dam was, of course, not a dam in the strict sense, designed to store water in an artificial lake. Rath... more...

Yemen’s agriculture has flourished for over five thousand years because of the variety of ways in which limited water resources have been used for irrigation and water supply. The history of Yemeni irrigation, which has yet to be surveyed systematically, is not only a measure of the rich cultural heritage of its people but also a vital source for planning sustainable development of Yemen’s agriculture in the face of rapidly diminishing water resources. The message of my contribution to this v... more...

Agriculture in Yemen dates back at least 5000 years. As far as insects are concerned, some references to beekeeping date back to about 1000 BC. The history of insect collection in Yemen started in the 18th century, with the Danish expedition of Frederick V. Although this expedition ended tragically with most members dying of disease, its results were later published. As we follow the history of agriculture in Yemen we find that farmers developed a great store of knowledge, elaborated through ... more...

Forces of economic and social change during the 1970s and 1980s facilitated the unsustainable exploitation the Sacdah aquifer. By the early 1990s groundwater levels in the Sacdah basins, home to a farming population of about 180,000 people, were declining annually by 4-6 metres. In a worst-case scenario the area’s groundwater resources will be exhausted in a few decades unless a shift from water supply to water demand management (WDM) can be achieved. Allan and Karshenas have shown that under... more...

Réalisé en partenariat avec le Centre Yéménite de Ressources Génétiques, ce numéro des ‘Cahiers du CEFAS’, qui fait suite à deux précédents ‘Cahiers du CFEY’, réunit une sélection de 19 articles issus du séminaire Place des pratiques et des techniques anciennes dans l’agriculture yéménite d’aujourd’hui : problèmes et perspectives, qui s’était tenu en juin 2000 à la Faculté d’Agriculture de Sanaa et dans les locaux du CEFAS. Plus de trente anthropologues, archéologues, géographes, historiens, agronomes et spécialistes du développement, étrangers et yéménites, ont pris la parole au cours de ces journées de rencontres et d’échanges.Loin d’un regard nostalgique sur l’image d’une agriculture yéménite immuable qui aurait échappé à toute modernisation ‘néfaste’ de ses pratiques et de ses techniques, et bien loin d’un débat remettant en question des avancées technologiques ‘excessives’ et leurs éventuels effets sur l’environnement et la qualité de l’alimentation, il fut davantage question ici de réfléchir aux interventions en matière de développement dans un pays principalement d’économie rurale et pour lequel toute politique de développement doit s’appuyer en priorité sur le travail de sa population paysanne. This third publication of ‘Cahiers du CEFAS’ –previously named ‘Cahiers du CFEY’- results from a partnership with the Yemeni Genetic Resources Center (YGRC) and consists of 19 articles selected from the seminar The place of ancient agricultural practices and techniques in Yemen today : problems and perspectives, held in June 2000, at the Faculty of Agriculture of Sanaa University and in the CEFAS. More than 30 anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, historians, agronomists and development specialists, from Yemen and abroad, participated in the meetings. Far from being a nostalgic point of view on a potentially ‘unchanging’ Yemeni agriculture, protected from any ‘harmful’ modernisation of its practices and techniques, and at the same time, far from discrediting ‘excessive’ technological improvements and their effects on environment or food quality, this seminar was clearly dedicated to sharing ideas related to development operations in this mainly rural country, where any development policy has to, in all cases, rely upon farmers’ labour. more...

The survey carried out during this campaign (17 November to 4 December) had the goal of ascertaining whether the modulation in size and technical sequence detected in the 1998 survey and analysis of hydraulic systems in the Zafâr area were equally discernible in adjoining valleys. The hydraulic systems that had been studied earlier (see Figure 1) had turned out to have a noticeably smaller size than previous archaeological studies had supposed. It rapidly became obvious that we were in fact d... more...

Transformation of Yemeni agriculture during the second half of the 20th century took place at a rapid pace under the influence of a number of internal and external factors. Change had remained very slow under the Yemeni Imamate and during the first decade of the Republic. In the Yemen Arab Republic from the late 1970s onwards agriculture was transformed at remarkable speed due primarily to the rapid expansion of well irrigation agriculture. Most of this was financed by short-term emigrants to... more...

It is well known that since the dawn of civilization Yemen has been an agricultural community and that earlier farmers transmitted their experience and agricultural knowledge to later generations. Each generation that comes along takes the results of this experience, preserving it in their communal spirit through proverbs, wise sayings and poems. These serve to contain all the knowledge, methods and seasonal timings in traditional agriculture. As a resource through poetry and proverbs, this c... more...

Wādī Hadramawt extends some 900 km from the Ramlat al-Sabactayn sand sea westward to Sayhūt on the coast of the Arabian Sea, cutting a deep course through a high plateau (jawl) in the Hadramawt Governorate, Republic of Yemen. Multiple tributaries feed into the main wādī course: Wādī cAmd, Dawcan, al-cAyn, Bin cAlī, Shuhūh, Tārbah and cIdm from the south, and Wādī Haynan, Sirr, Nacām, Jacaymah, Madr, Thabī, and al-Khawn from the north. Wādī Hadramawt encompasses about two million hectares, of ... more...

Honeybees appeared on earth long before human beings. Bees started life in mountains and forests, where they built their hives in caves and the hollow trunks of trees. Bee colonies attracted the attention of early man looking for food in mountains and forests—the honeybee has long been familiar to human beings. Prehistoric rock art in Spain dating back to the 7th millennium B.C. showed ancient man taking honey from bees. Egyptian inscriptions going as far back as the 4th millennium B.C attest... more...

An understanding of the beginning of agriculture, and of the origin, domestication and adaptation of crop plant species (local and introduced) to diverse agro-climatic conditions, is a prerequisite for formulating appropriate strategies, based on traditional knowledge and modern agricultural technologies, for sustainable agricultural production in Yemen. This presentation deals with these aspects. more...