Reference Date: 31-October-2024

Food security and agriculture weakened, amid economic constraints and unfavourable weather conditions

Mixed weather patterns during the 2023/24 season, coupled with high input costs, limited planting of 2024 cereal crops across the country. Subdued rainfall amounts during May and June 2024 had a negative impact on yields of main cereal crops, including sorghum, maize and millet. Prolonged heavy rainfall and floods during the Kharif rainy season, particularly in August, have caused significant damages to agriculture, infrastructures and livelihoods. However, increased water availability in irrigated lands improved conditions of fodder crops with likely beneficial effects on livestock production.

Despite the recent de-escalation signs between conflicting parties, the country’s financial sector crisis is expected to remain critical until early 2025.

Humanitarian assistance remains limited, although the attack on the Port Al Hodeidah in late July 2024 had some impacts on imports and humanitarian inflows.

As the country is prone to desert locust outbreaks, the latest weather forecast points to unusual rainfall amounts in October 2024, a second generation of breeding is expected between October 2024 and March 2025.

Moderately below-average cereal harvest in 2024

In 2024, cereal production is estimated at a slightly below-average level of 400 000 tonnes mainly due to dry weather conditions at planting time in the main crop producing governorates of Al Hudayda, Hajja and Dhamar, and limited access to inputs due to high costs.

Imports expected at below-average levels

The country is heavily reliant on imports and international assistance to cover its domestic food demand. Cereal imports during the 2023/24 marketing year (July/June) decreased by about 6 percent year-on-year. Despite basic food commodities are available in most local markets, access to food remains challenging due to high prices and declining household purchasing power. Upcoming cereal imports for 2024/25 are expected at around 6 percent below the five-year average, amid the economic challenges and the attacks in July 2024 on the main Port Al Hodeidah which had some impacts on imports and humanitarian assistance.

About 17.5 million people expected to face food insecurity by February 2025

Up to 18 million people (more than 50 percent of the country's total population) are expected to face food insecurity by February 2025. By 2024, nearly 610 000 children in government-controlled areas are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, showing a 34 percent rise from 2023.

In July 2024, the cost of the Minimum food basket (MFB) in government-controlled areas reached a record high level, almost 20 percent higher than 12 months before. This was driven by currency depreciation and high fuel prices . The currency rate depreciated by 26 percent year-on-year in July 2024 in the Internationally Recognized Government of Yemen (IRG), underpinned by a drop in crude oil exports and low inflows of remittances. The depreciation of the Yemeni rial value and the high cost of MFB negatively affected households’ capacity to purchase food items.

Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This brief was prepared using the following data/tools:
FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance Sheet (CCBS) https://www.fao.org/giews/data-tools/en/ .

FAO/GIEWS Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool https://fpma.fao.org/ .

FAO/GIEWS Earth Observation for Crop Monitoring https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/ .

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) https://www.ipcinfo.org/ .