"It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades,". That's according to Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, after a briefing with the Security Council in November of last year. And it seems that others in his field agree with his sentiments, with UN humanitarian chief saying Yemen is facing the world's largest food crisis.
Located on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, with an estimated population of 27.4 million- 8 million of which are at risk of starvation.
The already food-scarce nation has been ravaged by civil war which broke out in 2015, only worsening the situation.
The clashes have destroyed public infrastructure and services like hospitals and schools, blocked access to basic supplies and forced 3 million people from their homes. In addition to this, agriculture and fishing, which many Yemeni's are dependent on have been disrupted by Saudi Arabian bombing. As a direct result, food prices have surged and according to statistics, one in four Yeminis cannot afford food from local markets.
Even before the current conflict, almost half the population lived below the poverty line, and the country faced political instability, underdevelopment, unemployment and hunger.
Aside from this, Yemen's agricultural production is at risk of various natural hazards such as drought, flooding, epidemics, pests and desertification.
Only 2.36% of Yemen's land area is arable land. This is largely due to Yemen's harsh, desert climate. Annually, 20% of arable land is destroyed by sandstorms which cause soil erosion and damage to crops, making life difficult for farmers. In addition to this, desertification -the process by which fertile land becomes desert- is rapidly encroaching on Yemen's coastal agricultural land.
50-year-old Hamood Al-Sharai migrated from his rural village to the nearby Ibb city, 194 km south of Yemen's capital, Sana'a 10 years ago. He had hoped for a new source of income after his land had become too arid to use due to drought and overgrazing.
"I used to earn money by selling the crops produced on my land. I also sold cattle that grazed on the land. However, I started to lose my cattle when they were dying of starvation," Al-Sharai said.
And he is not alone. According to a study released in 2012, Yemen's major cities including Sana'a, Taiz & Ibb, have witnessed high levels of internal migration in the past 20 years as people lose their source of income from cultivation and grazing.
However, the issue of water-scarcity is perhaps Yemen's greatest constrain to food production. In a country which depends on rainwater for its agriculture, most areas only receive 250 millimetres of rainfall annually.
Almost 90 percent of annually consumed water in Yemen is used for agriculture, and a large portion of this is due to inefficient irrigation techniques. Only 40 percent is actually used by plants and the remaining water resources are wasted either as deep percolation or as evaporation.
Henceforth, in order to sustainably increase Yemen's agricultural yields, the implementation of efficient water management techniques is vital.
Yemen has a rich history of water management. Perhaps, by looking back on the ways of their past, they can find a solution to their current crisis. In the Sana'a basin, ground water is being extracted four times faster than it can be replenished. Moreover, the unregulated drilling of private wells to tap into underground aquifers only worsens the issue of desertification. Instead, the adaptation of rainwater harvesting would effectively store water to then be used as irrigation or to be filtered as drinking water.
In Yemen's cities, the style of architecture directly lends itself to rooftop rainwater harvesting (refer to figure…) In rural areas, there is potential for larger scale rain water harvesting, alleviating pressure from ground water sources.
In different countries, rainwater harvesting has shown effective, promoting significant water saving, and reducing water shortage.
According to a 2006 study, RWH in 62 Brazilian cities proved an average potential for water saving of 69%.
This combined with the use of improved irrigation technologies will not only provide better quality of life in cities and rural areas, but allow for protection against drought, the replenishment of infertile soils and in turn, see increased agricultural yields for farmers.
However, ultimately in order to see significant change in food security in Yemen, it is essential that the country's civil war is resolved. Whilst the Yemen Humanitarian aid response plan has pledged $2.3 million to reach 12 million in need of humanitarian support, with over 17 million Yeminis rendered food insecure and a third of the country in severe danger of famine as a result of the current conflict, no amount of aid will solve Yemen's crisis.