Abstract
Qat is by far the most important cash crop in North Yemen, even though the entire production is distributed and consumed within the country. Until 1971 qat contributed to the country’s balance of trade through exports to Aden (now PDRY). However, since the ban on it in that country instituted in 1971, the popular plant no longer brings in any foreign currency to the Yemen Arab Republic. This is one of the facts martialled by Western economists and some Yemeni government officials in their bitter arguments against the drug. That consumption is totally local is also frequently cited as evidence that qat has little real importance to the economy. The true magnitude of its economic role in the economy has not been understood or appreciated by outside observers.
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Notes
This proportion has remained constant. In 1982 estimates by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development were that the crop value for qat was about 800,000,000 dollars, or again almost a third of the Gross Domestic Product. “The estimated market value for all other crops in the country was no more than 15,000,000 dollars” (Varisco 1986:3)
More recent information from the Rida area (1983) indicates that at least some qat farmers of this region are now earning more than 37,000 dollars per hectare (data by Peter de Lange cited in D. Varisco, 1986:4). To some degree this reflects the inflation which has gone on in Yemen.
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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Kennedy, J.G. (1987). The Agriculture and Economics of Qat. In: The Flower of Paradise. Culture, Illness and Healing, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-6876-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-6876-0_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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