The Ismailis’ “War” against Qat in Ḥarāz

Arabian Humanities

关键词: Bohra;    sustainable agriculture;    qat;    Ismailism;    Rashīd (Salmān);   

DOI  :  10.4000/cy.1460

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In 1999, the Ismaili Bohra Community in Yemen’s Ḥarāz mountains launched a drug substitution programme in order to replace the cultivation of qat with other economic and social activities. Motivated by religious concern, this campaign aimed at suppressing the consumption of qat. Over 200,000 qat trees were uprooted and coffee and mango trees planted instead. Alternative means of income generation included animal husbandry, beekeeping and handicraft schemes, complemented by irrigation projects, educational programmes and interest free loans for investments in other economic sectors. Even though the programme was hampered from its start by a severe drought, and in spite of the absence of governmental support, it resulted in a sharp reduction in the cultivation and consumption of qat and a significant diversification of the farmers’ economy. However, the project led also to rural-urban migration and abandoning agricultural lands. But despite its shortcomings, this project, unique in Yemen by its capacity of social mobilization, provides precious lessons on the political and economical constraints which bear on any attempt to develop in Yemen mountains an agriculture which would be free of qat.

【 授权许可】

Unknown