Terrace farming in Yemen

Excerpt

TERRACED mountain land in Yemen was continuously cultivated for about 30 centuries (7). In the 1970s, however, farmers of this Arab republic on the southwestern Arabian peninsula began to abandon the terraces in favor of oil-related jobs in neighboring countries. Now, unless soil conservation measures are adopted, erosion will destroy all terraces on the abandoned slopes of this ancient, man-made ecosystem.

The historical setting

Early settlers of Yemeni mountain land faced an ambivalent situation. Rich soils derived from volcanic lavas and pyroclastics were an asset, as were the spring and summer rains of the semiarid monsoonal climate. But where rainfall was highest, relief energy was also highest. With an amazing labor input, the settlers constructed millions of terraced fields on steep, rugged mountain slopes and began simple, highly effective methods of harvesting rainwater.

Prior to the oil boom of the 1970s, most Yemenites had no economic alternative to intensive, subsistence-level agriculture. Between 1970 and 1980, massive migration to Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states reduced Yemen's agricultural male labor force from more than 1 million to less than 700,000. In this same decade, short-term emigration increased from 140,000 to 540,000 …