Yemen

Local Yemeni farmer ready to plant an olive sapling as part of the MRDS agriculture project.

Environment/Agriculture. From a distance, the mountains in western Yemen appear barren and forbidding. But visitors see a very different world when they are standing in the midst of them, the mountains are absolutely beautiful. A Millennium team recently visited the area to check the progress of an environmental/agriculture project. The project, supervised by two local engineers, provides practical information while increasing awareness of the relationship between the environment, agriculture and the economy. Increased awareness along with practical programs will revitalize agriculture in the area.

As Millennium and local government officials toured the project site the local people proudly showed how the work they were doing to improve their land was progressing. The group inspected work to revitalize terraced land and visited home gardens producing vegetables and fruit trees. They also toured the nursery, which has a capacity of 2,500 saplings for fruit production and reforestation.
Afterwards the guests gathered with the project participants to discuss problems of erosion, drought, the scarcity of drinking water, and the need for reforestation of terraced land. The visit to this life-giving project was highlighted in the newspaper Al Qabaitah.