ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an issue over which there is general confusion in the literature on Yemen, specifically, variations in land use and shows how they affect the introduction of change in the agricultural sector. It demonstrates that the positive role that an anthropologist can play in both the planning and implementation of agricultural development projects. The chapter draws on the results of recent ethnographic fieldwork, relevant research reports, and the nationwide agricultural census of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The country has virtually no agricultural exports, the main cash crop, qat, being cultivated almost exclusively for local use. In pre-Islamic times, several major dams allowed for widespread agricultural systems. Data on the use of agricultural land in the Yemen Arab Republic have become available, but they are contradictory on several points, with major differences in estimates of the country's cultivated area.
