TİKA Provided Coffee Seedlings to Yemen

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided 1400 coffee seedlings and technical equipment to farmers in Taiz, Yemen.

TİKA provided a total of 1400 coffee seedlings, 70 seedlings each, to 20 families, in Al-Maafer District in Taiz Province, Yemen. The Agency also donated technical equipment to be used in garden irrigation, tree care, harvesting, post-harvest preservation, and drying, and organized a 4-month training program for farmers. 

The project was launched with the tree-planting event attended by Nabil Jamal, Provincial Director of Taiz in the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation of Yemen; District Governor of Al-Maafer; Dr. Abdul Hamid Saif, Deputy Provincial Director of Taiz in the Ministry of Agriculture of Yemen; Abdullah Sarı, TİKA’s Program Coordinator; and beneficiaries.

In his speech after the planting process, Dr. Abdul Hamid stated that they found the project very meaningful and that it was the first development project led by a foreign institution in the region. He said, “We would like to express our gratitude to our Turkish brothers and sisters and TİKA for carrying out this project. We hope similar projects that affect people directly, generate income, and contribute to the national economy will be implemented.”

Nabil Jamal, Provincial Director of Taiz in the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation of Yemen, stressed that such a meaningful project was implemented for the first time and that the support provided for coffee traders would contribute greatly to the fight against the production of khat, which is a type of drug. Jamal thanked TİKA and the Turkish people for this important project, which could set an example for other NGOs and institutions.

Abdullah Sarı, TİKA’s Program Coordinator, said, “The first things that come to mind when you say Yemen in Turkey are Owais al-Qarani and coffee. We have a saying: ‘Coffee comes from Yemen.’” He added that Turkey has always striven to stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen and worry about their problems as if they are their own. He noted that TİKA aimed to help the people of Yemen get back on their feet with more than 100 projects in various fields such as humanitarian aid, education, and health, and that this project focused on providing opportunities to those in need, improving the welfare of households, and contributing to the national economy in Yemen, where unemployment has reached its peak. Sarı stated that they were planning a separate activity focused on the process from the harvest of coffee to its delivery to end customers for the second phase of the project.