4.4: Rural Economy at Jebel Bura'

[after CIA-Factsheet (Internet) @Yemen, Economy][http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/pubs.html]

The government expenditures are extraordinary. Additional to the 200,000 civil servants in the north some 22000 civil servants had to be relocated from the south. Taxes form only 25% of the revenues and they cover only 17% of the expenditures! There is no discipline of paying and collecting taxes.

Due to the Gulf War the foreign remittances have declined from annually $ 1.3 billion in 1990, to some mere 3-350 million in 1991. (as mentioned on p. 28 of the UNESCO report [ibid]. Or they have declined from 1.5 billion in 1989 to some 700 million in 1991 (? as mentioned on p. 38 of the same report!). Foreign aid has declined from $ 600 million to 200 in 1991. The total losses Yemen incurred because the Gulf war reached some $ 2 billion per year! Yemen is ranking now economically on place 130 among 160 countries!

Agriculture in Yemen, in spite of only delivering 21% of the GDP in 1990 (down from 26% in 1983), still employs more than half of the population. The total agricultural area after the estimates of Kopp was 16 798 km² = 1,679,800 ha. That would be even a bit less than the mapped woodland area (2 million ha!).

At Bura' we have quite different "economies" in the mountains and in the Tihama. The mountains produce two of the main cash crops of Yemen: coffee and qat, both on an altitude of 1000-2000 m.a.s.l. The other three cash crops: cotton, tobacco and indigo, are grown in the Tihama.

The terraces at Bura' are mainly on the upper parts of the mountain, above 800m. The life here is based on production of qat and coffee. Makhraba (and at a lesser extent Ruqub) are market places with a few permanent shops. Some small irrigated plots can be found along Wadi Rigaf and Wadi al Aswad where they enter the Tihama and get a bit flatter.

Agriculture in the Tihama itself is increasingly irrigated by pumps. Until 1981 this was less than 3% of the area (SOGREA report).

4.4.1 Sorghum, the Bulk Agricultural Product of Yemen.

Sorghum, a c4 plant, is the most drought resistant and the most efficient water user and "converter". Durah needs, dependant on the altitude between 80 days to 7 months for ripening. A fallow period should follow, but normally the "planning is done by the rain". If it rains the farmer plants, it doesn't, there is a fallow period.

Even under irrigation it is considered one of the most economic commercial crops. It can be grown in summer and in winter (at least in the Tihama. It requires less water then the other cereals. And it produces not only grains, but several harvests of leaves and stalks that can be sold on the Highlands, where they are used as dry fodder for cows.

4.4.2 Coffee, the Fame of Yemen's Agriculture

Coffea arabica came originally from Ethiopia. No wild plants have been found in Yemen. The beans where and are marketed at Beit al Faqih and shipped from the port of Mokha from where it got its name.

That plant is very well adapted to the monsoon climate. It flowers after the first rains, the seeds develop with the second rain (overlaps are possible). While the beans have traditionally been exported, the husks are dried and make a tasty infusion called qishr.

Coffee production is declining because a) qat is more demanded and reaches much higher prices, b) coffee is more demanding in terms of soils (rich wadi bottom) and water (800mm), c) export is difficult, as on the international market coffee costs about half of what is paid locally (- some $ 10/kg)!

Qat in comparison, produces about 1000 YR per qasabah and year. 25 qasabahs are 0.135 ha, 1ha is 185 qasabahs and produces YR 185,000 per year (about US$ 41,000 at that time! What means four to five times more than coffee! Qat is the most important plant in Yemen, chewed by millions each day. There is no wild form of qat. The only natural relative of Catha edulis can just be found in Yemen: Catha spinosa. This one was most probably domesticated in Ethiopia and later, in the middle ages, reintroduced by Seyids.

Often coffee is grown together with some papayas and bananas. The areas around Lakamah are totally covered with qat and coffee. Seedlings are produced in the villages at costs of YR 10 the piece.

Normally coffee is associated with Cordia abyssinica (taneb) - the oldest and most impressive agroforestry system in Yemen. Bura' was the first area where the author has seen coffee grown without the shade of Cordia, Ficus or Breonadia. Those are, with a height of 20m to 30m the highest trees in Yemen. The wood of Cordia is the most estimated and expensive wood. It is fine grained, durable, does not split, crack or splinter when worked, withstands dry air and water. Doors may cost up to 10,000 YR ($ 1000, 1988 exchange level). A simple board of 90cm x 15cm x 2.5cm costed YR 120 ($12.-) in 1988!

Coffee plantations need some chemical protection. The main problems are the Coffee Berry Moth, the Coffee Borer and the Oleander Scales. Fruit trees and qat are often infested with Woolly Aphids.

name

dissolution

waiting period

Carbaryl WP85

Dicarbam WP85

Diazinon EC40

Dipterex WP80

Malathion EC5

Sumithion EC40

20g/10l

20ml/10l

20g/10l

20ml/10l

30ml/10l

21 days

While the waiting period is not so critical for coffee, its neglection causes many problems with qat, where quite large amounts of leaves are chewed during hours!

Spraying of coffee has to be done after flowering and the effect to be controlled as long as green berries are present. With fertilizers the productivity might be increased, but fertilizers cost money. Mainly urea is used so far.

4.4.3 Livestock and Range at Jebel Bura'

For all Yemen the statistical "estimate" of the ministry of agriculture in 1989 was 3.7 million sheep, 3.3 million goats, 1.2 million cattle and 200,000 camels. That makes about one animal per inhabitant - at Bura' it would be two.

The veterinary of Bura', Ali Shua', living at Ruqub, has quite a good picture of the livestock present on Jebel Bura', as he registers exactly the vaccination doses applied:

There is again a very strong difference between the mountain areas and the plains. While in the Tihama each family keeps a significant number of goats and sheep (10 to 30) or camels, and additionally one or two cows, the highland farms can only keep a few goats that have to be stallfed. Water and fodder is scarce - and still in almost any house the lady is taking care of one or two cows! The small amount of cow milk produced each day is used for home consumption. From the milk mainly butter is produced and sold. Cheese production is known in the Ibb-Taiz area, but not here.

The animals themselves serve as a kind of "saving account", a security for the farmers. Meat is very rarely consumed in the rural areas. The revenues from sale are used to finance needs of the household, for investments in the farm or health care. A sheep can be sold at the market for some 6-800 YR ($ 40-60, 28.11.90). A cow costs some YR 20,000 ($ 1200 - 2000).

Feeding animals with additional fodder from the market is expensive. The daily feed needs equal 2.75% of body weight. With the average body weight of sheep of some 25 kg that makes 690 g per day [after reports of the "Range and Livestock Improvement Project Dhamar":]. At Dhamar some 40% of the fodder are grazed from the range and fallow lands, 25% are crop leftovers (especially in winter), 17% is supplementary fodder, what can be quite expensive. At Sukhna the average weight of bundles of green sorghum has been determined as 7kg costing 6.5 YR. A cow needs 4 bundles (rutba) per day (costing YR 26 to 80! While on the highlands this poor fodder is enriched with alfalfa from plantations, here only grass and weeds from the farmland or leaves and branches from the forest can be added. Quality varies, from Cissus and Tamarindus to Ziziphus, that can only be browsed by camels and sheep due to its spines!

4.4.3.1 Pastoralisme

The positive or destructive effects of nomadic pastoralisme compared with sedentary farming are contested. Messick Brinckley [Messick Brinckley (1978) p. 9:] sees Yemeni farming methods very optimistically: "The rural economy of Yemen is based on the interrelationships of its land, grains, animals, and people. The major crops are drought-resistant cereals, favoured for their relatively good storage capacity and for the value of the plants as fodder and fuel. Livestock, fed with stalks, leaves, and grasses, are used to draw the plow and to return nutrients to the soil through their manure. Where other fuel is scarce, animal dung is also an important cooking fuel. Grain, milk and milk products, and meat, form the staple human diet. It is an ecologically balanced system based on minimizing the waste and maximizing the use of all products. The system is economical in water use, simple in technology and compatible with an uncomplicated division of labour based on household organization."

So he sees the Yemeni agricultural system as integral and sustainable. Kopp had expressed the same, while excluding trees. The results of phytosociological and forestry inventories discussed before shows that the picture is indeed a different and more critical one in regard to range and forests. There are several potential causes: "Some researchers believe that full pastoralists are better at keeping the ecological balance than agropastoralists, because the former are totally dependent on one set of resources (livestock and pasture), but the latter can also rely on crop cultivation. If it is true that agropastoralists tend to damage their environment more than full pastoralists, and there is some evidence to indicate it, the causes are probably not inherent in the systems but due to external factors and the challenge is to identify those conditions that make the agropastoralist "loose control" over the environment." [From Brandstroem, P.J; Hultin, J & Lindstroem, J: Aspects of Agropastoralisme in Est Africa. Scandinavian Inst. of African Studies Research Report no 51, Upsala. 1979. p. 44. In: Community Forestry. Herder's Decision Making in Natural Resources Management in Arid and Semi-arid Africa. Comm. Forestry Note 4. FAO Rome 1990.]

"During times of stress and drought, pastoralists have recourse to a few "crisis" strategies, i.e. activities that they engage in temporarily to tide them over the period of stress. These include raids, ..., hunting and gathering, spontaneous and temporary farming, wage labour (in urban areas or mines, ..., and recently, refugee aid. Raiding is an ecological adaptation that helps to support subsistence patterns by replenishing stocks, and equalize wealth among tribes. (36) But raiding also means insecurity and high cost of defense for the weaker tribes." [ibid p. 50:]

Unluckily in none of the two cases the argument of dependency is one that necessarily leads to care for the environment. The author started work in Yemen with a totally positive attitude, based on the knowledge that a majority of the Yemenis need their natural environment for sheer survival. Taking care for the range has to make sense, economically and culturally. But - several traditions are in opposition to that. Practical problems are, that the sheep and goat are grazing freely. They are only superficially guarded. Moreover, pastoralists have no use for the climax stage of plant successions, for forests, they prefer grasses!

On one side of orientation and motivation of action it is on one side clear that complex systems need freedom for development, need alternatives. On the other side "alternatives" may just give the chance to evict the consequences of destroying the system's environment. In both of the above mentioned cases evasive strategies can be targeted. Not only can he agropastoralist shift to crop production, but both may dream of some salaried job in the town or abroad!

So on one side we have the local system (village, region) with its natural and social (family/tribe) environment. This is the system we just have to take care of - as its destruction destroys our life. We have to use it in an integral and sustainable way, even if it is only subsistence economy.

On the other side we have the alternatives. A profit oriented economy with global, short term orientation, that does not care for local limits, be they natural, sociocultural or political.

Development assistence is situated precisely in between this pair of cissors. On the one side natural environment (tropical forests e.g.) are being destroyed out of need, for the sheer survival - and (capitalistic) growth economy is praised as solution. On the other side it is precisely the myth of "sustainable growth" of the West that destroys the ozone layer, creates global warming, mass unemployment in the developed countries themselves and elsewhere. In Yemen the effects of both destructive strategies can be observed. On one side the overuse of wood- and rangelands - on the other side the abandonment of terraces and the conversion of forests to more productive agricultural use.

A clear indication that "science" will have to be more precautious in regard to ideologies and the connected "finalities" hidden in its own basement.

4.4.4 Agricultural By-Products: Fruits, Vegetables, Honey.

Yemen is rich in fruits since a long time. Al Malik al Ashraf listed already for the middle ages in his famous book: "Desirable Practices of Farmers for Flowering Trees and Aromatic Plants" ["Bughyat al-fallahin fi al-ashjar al-muthmira wa-al-rayahin" in: D.M. Varisco; A.R. Dubaie; M. Jazm; M. Mahyub: Indigenous Plant Protection In Yemen. Final Report. July 1992. p 21 & list from p. 24:] the following fruits:

Newly imported types of fruits are papaya and mango. Both can be seen in plantations, but often as well in small numbers besides houses, qat orchards or sorghum fields.

Sugarcane has nowadays almost disappeared. It was common in the valleys of the Taiz area, but was replaced by qat. Bananas on the other hand have strongly increased. Besides the standard type there is a large and very tasty variety, as well as a small and very sweet one. The Fruitspotting Disease was for a while so intense, that it brought banana production almost to a standstill. The infection is caused by trips bites that lead to secondary infections by fungi and bacteria. For prevention the following treatments are recommended by the German Plant Protection Project:

Very little vegetable farming is done on and around Bura'. One farmer at Hazz tried it in 1991 on a small plot. He irrigated with a small petrol pump and had himself some doubts about the economic outcome from the start, as 20 l petrol cost him 50 Rials.

The effect of the ill-balanced sorghum diet is visible. The lack of vitamin b (present in beans and other pulses) leads to several severe cases of pellagra in the area. A few women started to grow beans in homegardens.

Yemen is producing probably the most expensive honey of the world. 1 kg can cost up to YR 2000 = $ 200 (in 1988). At Jebel Bura the costs were YR 300 - 500 ($ 8 in 1992-3) for half a litre. The estimated production is 80 tons/y for all Yemen. Half of it is exported to the Gulf States. [H. Van den Heuvel: "Beekeeping in the Republic of Yemen." Environment 3 (2) march 1992 and "Yemen Honey: Medicinal Properties." Yemen Times. 24 June 1992.] The high prize is mainly due to the aphrodisiacal properties ascribed to such honey, especially to the do'ani, the black honey from Hadhramout.

Bee hives are often made from clay. Small diameters are well adapted to the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) and cheaper. The western bee (Apis mellifera) would be more productive but less hardy. Most often wooden boxes or, in the Eastern Regions up to Hadhramout, the hollow boles of Dracaena ombet are used. Bee hives are covered with cloth that can be wetted to regulate the microclimate. Most often the drinking water of the bees is fed on a sponge - and "enriched" with sugar.

The best fodder plant for bees is Ziziphus spina-christi, producing a honey that is first red and turns into black after a few days. Acacia honey is delicious as well and has a yellow-brownish colour. The major problem and cost factor is the queen that has to be replaced periodically. The forestry project e.g. payed some $ 1500 for a beehive with the swarm!

At Bura' itself beehives can be found at Ali Harb and Suq as Sabt. Additionally there are several beehives outside the study area, e.g. at Shawa and on the track to Khalifa below the electrical power-line.

4.4.5 Wood Trade

Most of Yemen's construction wood is imported from Malaysia, some from Scandinavia.

import value (t)

value (YR 1000.-

export t

(value)

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

...

165334

...

107962

...

25470

673313

159766

129260

228992

278798

355927

231372

2253

54674 80891 (1989) 1)

266298 336475 (1989)

341873 (1990)

427106 42320 (1989)

427132 (1990)

386158 389106 (1990)

567219

945 (71422)

3 (7)

584

136

258

(292)

The continuous increase in value is mainly due to inflation! From 1980 to 1988 the (black market) value of 100 Yemeni Real was 4 real per dollar. That decreased in 1988 to 9 R/$, in 1990 to 15, after the Gulf war to 35 and until 1995, before the civil war, to 70 R/$ - while the bank exchange rate got stuck at 12 (18/25 for commercial companies and international agencies).

The local wood is mainly used as firewood. Only small amounts of local wood are sawn for carpentry purposes because such boards get more expensive than imported ones! [reported from Harraz by Swagman in 1981]

The World Bank estimated the residential firewood consumption in 1987 as 4.8 million tons of air dry wood per year (1.8 million t of oil equivalent). Additionally to that some 40,000 t of charcoal are used at homes, plus 60,000 t by large users (hotels, restaurants). The total estimate is 100,000 tons of charcoal per year, equal to 450,000 t of wood!

The use per household is some 5-10 kg per day [ESMAP p. 84:]. The World Bank's estimates for prizes in 1991 [Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).]:

Region	Firewood Urban Price	Firewood Rural Price	Charcoal Urban Price	Charcoal Rural Price
Sana'a Coastal Northwest Southern Central Northeast	2.22 2.17 1.85 2.33 1.91 1.41	1.04 1.32 1.76 1.98 2.05 1.49	8.62 7.29 8.35 6.84 5.90 6.15	6.20 8.14 7.20 7.66 n.a. 7.10
avg:	2.19	1.81	7.79	7.34
avg:	1.85		7.49

There is some differentiation between types of wood. Preferred for charcoal are Balanites, Acacia asak, Tamarindus, Ficus, Ziziphus; for firewood Dobera and Acacia.

It is clear that prices are very variable, much more than can be guessed from World Bank's estimate. It is clear as well that at least the second part of the traditional wisdom [Goitein] "la gad haigah nigihat uala mhattub 'istagna.... ("The woods don't get less and the woodcutter does not get rich") still holds true. That the first part is wrong has been shown in chapters 4. 2 and 4.3). The collection and transport of a load (10 to 20 kg) of wood to the road takes at least half a day. That makes an income of five, probably ten to maximum eighty yemeni rial per day - gross, the costs for car and petrol not deducted! More - but not easier - money can be made with quality wood for construction. For sticks the price will be about 1-2 real (price-level 1991) and 10 to 20 can be carried, poles can fetch up to YR 200 a piece. At Hazz ash Shuma e.g. A. J. A. and Q. M. live quite well from woodcutting on the southern slopes of Bura'. The first one can even afford two wifes!

In 1991 the wood markets between Bajil and Suq al Aman, a roadstrip of roughly 100 km length, have been listed: 1) The first one after Bajil is 6 years old and sells fuelwood for 5 YR a bundle. The weight is 6-13 kg/bundle. It is the largest one along the road. 2) Energoprojekt. 3-7) Villages. 8) Hamlet. 9-10 Village. 11) A small village with a chicken farm. 12) A wood and charcoal market at Chamis Bani Saad. 13) Selling place for large poles. 14) Small poles. 15) Village with fuelwood. 16) Village on hill selling poles just below the restaurant Mattam Bilqis. 17) Fuelwood. 18) Small poles. 19) Fuelwood. 20) Village selling poles before Manacha. 21) An other old wood market. 22) The "Euphorbia valley" before Suq al Aman (where one gets the strongest qat of Yemen)!

Until the 23.1.92 those places selling wood had increased to 26! The wood offered along that road gets more and more. The heaps that had been about 1m high during the first investigation went up to a height of two metres a year later. In addition more and more construction poles are present. This is not a sign for a decreasing demand, but for an increasing offer and an increasing pressure on the reserves. In the meantime, and in spite of the strongly devalued real, the prices just rose little (now 10 kg: YR 20, representing a day's work!) and do not at all represent the scarcity of the resource wood. Price has not only nothing to do with scarcity - it is as well of little use for steering, as it can't be set (politically - or what else?) on an artificially high level.

The Gulf War and the returning emigrants posed a lot of economic problems for Yemen, and enhanced the pressure on the forest. The "management" of those open areas is anyhow very destructive. The people returning from Saudi are even by the residents considered as a large risk for the forest: "If they don't find work, they probably cut trees to sell firewood." For the whole Jebel Bura' the estimated number of returned people is between 200 and 1000. Certain days it was a shocking and heart shrinking experience to hear the woodcutting all around. Lets take the 13th of august 1992 [field reports Herzog]: "At about seven or clock the girls from Maboura start above Chamisi's farm. Below Al Wadi the children collect so called 'dry wood' in the middle of the greenest forest. Above the same village, below Dar Ibn Hussain, about a dozen women cut the dead wood that is left from last years clearing - and some green trees west of it. At the eastern end of the road, about 20 women from Beni Suleiman collect fodder and small wood, mostly by lopping. It looks as if all the female population has been sent to cut down as much as possible before the forest is declared a reserve."

The direct impact that villages have on the forest in Wadi Rigaf has been treated in chapter 4.2 and 4.3. Besides this there is some indirect impact. The people from the district capital Ruqub e.g. were not directly cutting wood in Wadi Rigaf, but they buy wood from commercial woodcutters working mainly in the northern valley, between Jebel Bura' and Jebel Reima, but sometimes as well in Wadi Rigaf.

One of the diffuse but still high impact processes of forest degradation is the charcoal production. In august 1991 wood markets and charcoal-kilns have been mapped. The first kiln, working since long time with wood from Jebel Muhur is at Shawah. Then Khamisi (s. up) started charcoal production, the hamlet of Suq as Sabt, and 1991, the dry year, some 9 kilns have been working in Wadi al Aswad, between Dimnah at the upper end of the road and Mahall al Harb. Fuelwood was traded at Riqab (2 merchants + mobile merchants with pickups), Al Lakamah, Al Faish, Beni Baqi, Manwab, Ar Rafi'i, Kitabya and Hazz ash Shumah. Commercial markets for poles and construction wood were at Sukhna, Mansuria, Marawia and Bajil, partly supplied from the area, esp. Hazz ash Shumah and Deir al Uragh.

The deforestation processes and problems were discussed with the population of Ruqub and are seen by them as follows:

Charcoal (4) and woodtrade (5) are identified by the population as the most destructive. There would be the least resistance in limiting those, as just a few people profit from it. At Hazz ash Shumah large quantities of wood have been cut in the last 5 years for charcoal. The whole area was formerly covered by forests, up to the road leading to Ruqab . For little money it was sold. Even the local imam is running a charcoal kiln beside the mill. On my admittedly nasty comments, that it seems that even the imam is a wood thief - Hamoud, my driver, protested: "In Yemen the mountains belong to all the people. He is not a thief!" The wood merchant at Hazz ash Shumah, working on the southern slopes of Khusay area, the southern wing of Jebel Bura', is said to marry each year an other girl! He should not serve as an example!

4.4.6 The Potential Fuelwood Substitution by Gas.

Bottleg gas (LPG) is highly preferred nowadays all over Yemen. But it is still a "common place", that bread made on a woodfire tastes better. The country's gas reserves are estimated in 1987 as 6.8 TCF (trillion cubic feet) in the North and 15 to 20 tcf in the South, mainly at Shabwa. 90% of the households still use wood, what represents 58% of the total energy consumption of Yemen. 40% of the wood is purchased!

87% of all urban households use LPG, 46% only LPG! But only 37% of the rural households have access to LPG and only 1% uses just LPG.

Around towns LPG-use has lead to some regreening, as can easily be observed at Taiz. What concerns the use of gas at Jebel Bura', so we have been told, that only a few rich families use gas. It has to be brought from Sukhna. Total costs, including transports are YR 200 for a bottle at Ruqub, while the prise for refilling a bottle at Sana'a is YR 35 only! Moreover there is the problem, that quite often the access road is just not usable.

Electricity is only used by a few rich people having private generators. Out of the 27 villages at Bura' only Ruqub and Bani Baqi have an electricity supply working for the evening hours. Electricity for the few television sets in the area is supplied by car batteries.

4.4.7 Non-Agricultural Economy

Since Kopp's description [Kopp p. 85] not much has changed qualitatively in Yemen's villages. A place that has its own school, a mosque, a shop and eventually a mill is already a real village. In the shop mainly batteries for torchlights and radios, petrol, cigarettes and bottled water for the qat, matches, flower, qishr and tee are sold. To make a town (medinah) a permanent market (suq), a government representation, a judge, teachers, craftsmen and especially "movement" (haraqah) are requested.

Due to the isolation of Yemen, its subsistence orientation, the low status of craftsmen and merchants, not many economic activities in addition to pure subsistence have been developed. For instance As Sabt, at the entrance to Wadi Rigaf, is considered by the inhabitants as a "market place" rather than a village or hamlet. It lost most of this function after the construction of the road in 1984-88. At present there is one small shop ("kiosk") and two mills. The mills either buy bags of wheats (50 kg à YR 210) and resell them milled, or they charge YR 30 for the milling on request.

At the end of the two road forks there are guarded stores. From there the transports to the villages are done on donkeys, during summertime mostly by night.

During the drought of 1991 some of the "donkey drivers" transported water from the well to the village (mainly Ruqub). 1 jerrycan water (20l), the minimum for one family for one day, costed YR 35.

Some local trade is done by Tihamis. Early morning they go up to the mountain villages, carrying maize, chicken and honey, fixed on poles that they carry on their shoulder, or rarely on a donkey. Before noon they come back with a bunch of qat that they sell in the Tihama villages. Coffee bags were normally brought to the weekly markets of Mansouria or Khalifa, or to the permanent markets of Bajil or Marawia.

13% (!) of the population at Bura' have emigrated. That means 58% of men at the working age between 16 and 40 moved to towns, other regions or outside the country to find work. After the Gulf War, when lots of returnees were looking for work, many (50 people at Bura') migrated to Haja and Jebel Habeshi as qat traders.

Only occasionally there is a possibility to get payed labour on terraces. Before 1991, due to the high emigration rate, it was as well difficult and rather expensive to find workers. In 1992 a worker in terrace construction received YR 150 (exchange rate some YR 34/$), plus qat and lunch! A worker with a compressor got some YR 200.-, a construction worker up to YR 300.- per day.

B. Destremeau (Femmes du Yemen), found that many women try to create some additional income, by running a small shop (as M. is doing at Suq as Sabt), baking bread, cooking for prisoners and government employees or tailoring.

Restaurants are a rare feature in rural villages. In the Bura' district only one can be found at the district capital Ruqub, and it only opens for lunch (12⁰⁰-14⁰⁰) and dinner (18⁰⁰ to 20⁰⁰). At the village entrance, where the transport cars park, there is a small teahouse with a mafrag (hall) for rest and qat chewing. But it only serves tea, maize and broad beans.

At Sukhna there are two bathes (hot sulphur spa). The one in the former winter residence of the Imam is a bit cleaner. In three restaurants meat, eggs and rice are available, besides the compulsory broad beans and tea, but only for lunch. Additionally there are several shops that sell fruit drinks (lime, papaya) or tea.

A large variety of restaurants with a reasonable choice can be found at Bajil, Mansouria and especially at Hudeidah.

Yemen's most famous restaurant for the Yemeni speciality of hanid (or mandi) is at the western end of Marawia. Hanid is sheep meat, wrapped into banana leaves (nowadays often aluminium, sometimes newspapers) and baked for four to six hours in the tanoor (a large clay oven). The meat is so tender, that you can eat it by hand without using any knife. Delicious!

4.4 Rural Economy

4.4.0 Introduction