The civil war has left 18.3 million people in Yemen facing acute food insecurity. In addition to the impact of the war, there is also a culture of chewing khat grass that has long been deeply rooted in daily life in Yemen. Because its cultivation consumes a large amount of precious groundwater, it has seriously affected the development of food and agriculture in Yemen, causing the people to be trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and hunger.
Qat is a shrub that grows in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Its leaves contain cathinone, which produces stimulant-like effects when chewed. It has been classified as a Class II drug in Taiwan.
However, for the Yemeni people, khat grass is not only a refreshing plant, but also a social culture that has penetrated into daily life.
Yemeni people are accustomed to organizing a "Chat party" after lunch, chewing a whole plant of Chat grass in their mouths, drinking tea and chatting, and it has even become an important occasion for them to conclude business.
According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2023, as many as 70% of Yemeni men have the habit of chewing khat grass.
In the minds of ordinary Yemenis, not chewing qat grass sometimes not only means missing out on a kind of entertainment, but may also mean missing out on an opportunity to connect with relatives and friends, or even losing business partners.
Kholani, a Yemeni, said in an interview with the "National Geographic Channel" program: "Chaat keeps me energetic when talking to people."
Another university student, Watfa, told the Yemen Times: "Chat grass is a blessing to me, allowing me to study for 16 hours without getting tired; but it is also a curse, because I know that this stuff is not good for health."
Long-term use of khat grass will not only cause neurotoxicity in the body. Yemeni people are accustomed to chewing the leaves repeatedly, and after swallowing the juice, they will hold the broken leaves directly on the side of their cheeks. Over time, the facial muscle tissue will gradually proliferate and bulge significantly, forming the special shaped facial contours commonly seen on the streets of Yemen.
This centuries-old tradition has now become a part of Yemen's water resources, agriculture, and household expenditure crises.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations points out that Yemen is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Agriculture accounts for about 90% of the country's total water consumption, of which about 30% is used to grow khat grass. However, long-term planting of highly water-consuming khat grass has depleted Yemen's limited groundwater faster and further threatened food production. The FAO has made strong recommendations to Yemen in 2023 to reduce the area planted with khat grass and switch to more water-saving cash crops such as coffee.
However, the latest study this year by the Yemeni think tank Sanaa Center pointed out that the planting area of Yemeni Chat grass increased during the war because of the large domestic demand and "quick realization."
Farmer Ossama said in an interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera: "I used to grow wheat, but the income was unstable. Now I can feed my family by relying on chaat, because the market demand is stable and profits are high. I even have money left over to invest in business."
Another Yemeni farmer, Saleh, also told the local media "Fanack": "Growing chat can bring me the fastest and highest income."
Although Chat grass is a high-yield cash crop in the eyes of farmers, for users, the long-term expenditure of purchasing Chat grass in large quantities also puts their already meager income families into a quagmire of heavier financial expenditures, eating up part of the budget that should be used to buy food.
The Shana Center cited research and pointed out that about 20% of Yemeni households are in debt due to purchasing khat grass, and the currency depreciation and increase in khat prices caused by the war have worsened the economic pressure of more Yemeni families.
The United Nations warned of the hunger crisis in Yemen in September, stating that 18.3 million people in Yemen are currently at level 3 "acute food insecurity." The United Nations Food Program (WFP) also emphasized that the deepest cause of hunger among the Yemeni people is "lack of money to buy food," not just "lack of food."
Yemeni farmers choose to grow khat grass to support their families, and ordinary people spend their meager income on khat grass consumption, causing society to fall into a vicious cycle of "water shortage, food shortage, poverty, and continued dependence on khat."
