Public Disclosure Authorized
59993
Yemen
Investigation of Qat-Tree Uprooting among the
Isma’ili Community of Haraz - A Field Survey
Peer Gatter, Qahtan Abdul Malik and Khaled Muhammad Sa’id
Country Department III
Sustainable Development Department
Middle East and North Africa Region
Public Disclosure Authorized
Public Disclosure Authorized
Public Disclosure Authorized
Nov. 26, 1999
Report for the Ministry of Planning & Development
and the World Bank
Quote:
Gatter, Peer, Qahtan Abdul Malik & Khaled Muhammad Sa’id (1999): Yemen - Investigation of
Qat-Tree Uprooting among the Isma’ili Community of Haraz. A Field Survey (Nov. 26, 1999).
Report for the Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation and the World Bank, 4 pp.
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Date:
Field Survey on Nov. 26, 1999
Participants:
Peer Gatter (World Bank), Qahtan Abdul Malik (MAI), Khaled Muhammad Sa’id (MoPD)
Background:
On Oct. 30, 1999 al-Thawra newspaper reported the following:
“Taking the initiative, a number of Harazi qat farmers in al-Manacha, uprooted approximately
50,000 qat plants. Apparently, these farmers intend to stop growing the bitter tasting leaf on
their farming lands. They claimed that they will plant olives, coffee and other useful products
instead. Taking a very strong stand, they stated that they will never go back to qat growing as
this only invites health and financial destruction. More and more farmers are following suit."
Findings:
Qat farmers of the Menacha district have indeed started to uproot their qat trees.
This is true for the villages of
Kahel, az-Zeyah, Sharja, as-Salul, al-Aborat, Banahlas, Maraba, Bani Murra,
Dhahra (= al-Huteib), Lakamat al-Karuf, and Mahal al-Ashraf.
All farmers belong to the Isma’eli branch of Shiite Islam (Dawoodi Buhra), in
Yemen predominantly found in the area of Menacha. About 17,000 Isma’elis are said to
be living here. Their spiritual leader Dr. Muhammad Burhan ad-Din (he is residing in
India amidst a large community of Isma’elis), issued a religious decree (fatwa) some 8 or
10 years ago which was outlawing qat on religious grounds, saying that it is a drug like
alcohol, responsible for psychological disorders (nervousness, distrust), a drug which
destroys the health and is a financial burden to the family budget.
On his annual pilgrimage to the grave of one of his predecessors, the Da’i Sueb,
who is buried in al-Huteib, Burhan ad-Din called openly for the recognition of his fatwa
and asked his followers to put an end to qat farming. They were promised a
compensation for every uprooted tree. Uprooting a small tree earned YER 50, a large
tree YER 100. In addition, qat farmers were promised financial support for building
dams in order to irrigate their fields, which up to now are mainly rainfed. According to
some farmers also the Yemeni government is going to be involved in these future dam
building projects.
Whether the figure of 50,000 uprooted trees is accurate could not be assessed.
However, a large number of farmers had already uprooted all or a part of their trees and
had received money from Burhan ad-Din’s deputy in al-Huteib, the Sheik Abdullah
Jerma.
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Instead of Qat, farmers now intend to plant coffee, corn, sorghum and millet. Non
of them will plant olives as was claimed in the al-Thawra article.
Up to now, the Harazi farmers lived mainly from Qat, they planted also vegetables
and cereals, but mostly for subsistence. Only if the rainfall was higher than average they
could also sell these products. Another source of income are remittances from family
members living in the big cities.
Most farmers have only uprooted part of their Qat trees in order not to be without
income until coffee (2-3 years) and other crops will bear fruit and thus bring profit.
Qat farmer Naser Hussein
This 60 year old farmer from Lakamat al-Karuf used to have 250 Qat trees. 130 of
them he uprooted and received YER 6500 as a compensation. The others, he will cut over
the next couple of years when the newly planted coffee and cereal start to bring profit.
Remittances sent by family members from Sana’a will also help him to survive this shift
in cultivation.
Until now his income from Qat was YER 30,000 to 50,000 per year, depending
on the amount of rainfall.
We asked him if he was forced to uproot his qat. He said that the fatwa was only a
recommendation, but since he, as so many others, loves his spiritual leader, he simply had
to follow his wishes. Naser Hussein and many others stopped qat-chewing. However,
some Isma’elis continue with this habit.
A bright future as coffee farmer?
Many farmers reported that they will shift to coffee growing. Therefore we visited a
Isma’eli farmer in Mahal al-Ashraf, predominantly growing coffee.
Ali Ahmad Hassan had also grown qat, but some years ago he realized that the soil
(clay) was not good for qat but more suitable for coffee. He uprooted his trees and
planted coffee instead. He now has 200 coffee trees (10 trees growing per libna (=8x8
m)). The trees in rainfed fields carried fruit after 3 years, in fields with supplementary
irrigation trees carried fruit already after 2 years.
The mother tree is 12 years old, from its fruit seedlings are made. The seedlings are
put into ashes for a day (WHY?) and are then planted in a nursery (2x2 m). Here they
might stay for 3-4 years if rainfall is insufficient. If rainfall, however, permits, they are
transferred to the terrace fields after 1 year). Many of the trees suffered from a disease,
spoiling a considerable share of the harvest.
From his 200 coffee trees Ali Ahmad Hassan harvests 4 qadah per year (ca. 0.108
cubic meters). Depending on fluctuating market prices he earns YER 4,000 to 5,000 for
this. Since the family produces no other products for the market, this represents the
family income per annum. The family is very poor which was obvious not only from
their housing, but also from their general appearance. They had neither electricity nor
flowing water and they do not chew qat. The latter is not because of the fatwa, but
because they can simply not afford it.
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Market prices
In Menacha we inquired if the uprooting of qat in the neighboring villages has
affected the qat prices. Even though prices for qat were much higher than usual in the
area, this was not attributed to the uprooting of trees, but to the extremely cold wheather.
Qat merchants in Menacha: Views on Qat
One merchant said: “Yemenis are so hot blooded that it is bad for the health, Qat
helps to cool the blood and thus Qat is good for health”.
Another one said with a twinkle in his eyes, while pointing to some lower part of
his body: “Qat makes your pen strong, and makes the writing beautiful”.
Making use of this at the National Conference on Qat
For using the data gathered on this trip for the conference, more research in the area
is desirable since the two farmers and their fate cannot be compared a hundred percent.
Even though their villages are not more than one kilometer apart from each other, they lie
at different altitudes, have different soil, and also differ in their access to groundwater
and in the frequency of rainfall.
Despite this, it is very obvious that from the financial point of view, coffee farming
is not likely to replace qat cultivation.
However, the local spiritual leader of the Isma’eli, Sheik Abdullah Jerma who is
residing in al-Huteib could possibly be invited to be one of the conference discussants for
the topic Qat and Religion. Since the Isma’elis seem to be regarded by some Sunni
clerics as a cult that has left Islam, we have to be very careful and inquire if his
participation could not do more harm than good.
Yemen Times, Sept. 6, 1999 Haraz People start a Revolution against Qat During his visit to Yemen, Dr. Mohammed Borhanadeen, Sultan of Al‐Bohra, called the Ismaelian sect in Yemen to uproot the qat trees in their area and stop chewing it. Many people from Haraz responded to the Sultan's call and uprooted their qat trees and announced qat abandonment. More than 30,000 qat trees have been uprooted so far. At the same time, the Sultan expressed his readiness to provide the people of Haraz with financial aids to grow coffee and fruits instead of qat.
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