Descending from the southwestern plateau of Yemen’s Hadhramout province and stretching to the Arabian Sea, a historic valley called Wadi Hajar has long sheltered Yemen’s artisanal date industry from the passage of time. Once known as “the valley of a million palm trees,” the wadi’s basin spans some 10,000 square kilometers and is fed by stream beds that keep flowing all year round. Twenty years ago, the well-watered valley still supported some three million palm trees in groves that had been tended there for generations and were still producing date harvests that sustained the valley’s population of some 40,000 people.
Even in a fertile valley like Wadi Hajar, however, tending a palm grove is no small task. Date palms are dioecious plants, which means that each tree is either male or female, as determined by the genes present in the seed that sprouted it. Only female palms can produce dates, and they must be pollinated by a male palm in order to do so. Wind pollination occurs when there is a roughly equal number of male and female palms in an area. However, in cultivated groves, date palms are hand-pollinated—a technique that allows one male palm to pollinate up to 100 females, so that the number of fruit-bearing palms in a grove can be maximized.
In the seclusion of Wadi Hajar, date farmers accomplish the work of hand pollination in the first two steps of a five-stage process that has been passed down across Hadhramout’s valleys for hundreds of years.First, farm workers climb the valley’s male palms to collect their pollen clusters and bring them to the ground to dry. Next, all the valley’s female trees must be climbed so that the dried pollen clusters can be inserted into the flowers blooming among their fronds. Later, when the dates first start to ripen, the female palms are climbed again to support the growing weight of the clusters with wooden props, as well as to remove excess fruit so that the dates that reach maturity are large and healthy. In the following stage, another trip to the tops of the female palms is made to wrap the date clusters in coverings made from palm fronds that shield them from wind, dust, birds, and insects. Then, a final ascent of the female palms occurs when their large date-bearing stalks are ready to be cut and either lowered to the ground using a rope or dropped onto a tarp below.
In Wadi Hajar, all this tree climbing is done by men and the stages that occur in the high heat of summer are considered arduous. However, once the ripe dates reach the earth, the labor is transferred to Wadi Hajar’s women, who hand-sort and pack the dates on the sunbaked valley floor. In the past, processing the dates for home consumption in the Hadhramout also included a few more steps. The dates were pitted and washed and then dried in the sun for 4-6 hours. Afterward, they were scooped into a sack woven out of palm fronds and pressed by foot into a paste that was finally stored in a clay jar—often underground—where it is said they could be kept for over two years. Nowadays, however, Hadhrami dates are mostly packaged in vacuum-packed plastic bags—a method that preserves them for only about half the period of the traditional clay containers.[1]
“In the past, people really depended on dates—they ate them morning, noon, and night,” says Osama,[2] a farmer who owns a date grove in Wadi Hadhramout, which, like Wadi Hajar, is also still home to much of Yemen’s artisanal date industry.While dates are grown in at least 11 provinces[3] of Yemen, Hadhramout is the most famous for its date crops and supports over 65 percent of Yemen’s date palms with more than 66 varieties growing along its coasts and valleys. Hadhrami dates are even ranked among Yemen’s five most strategic agricultural products, alongside coffee, honey, corn, and onions.[4] Osama’s grove was planted 30 years ago by his father in this historic date heartland as a way of honoring their ancestors, for whom dates were both a staple at every meal and a symbol of hospitality and generosity to be served to guests as a gesture of welcome. Moreover, like most Yemeni farmers, Osama’s father also believed that the palms and their dates were sacred due to their mention in the Qur’an—where they are referenced more than 20 times.
For Yemenis, dates are particularly important during the holy month of Ramadan[5] since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad instructed his followers to break their fast at sunset each day during the month by eating dates, if possible. Research on the nutritional benefits of dates supports this practice, since they are easily digested—making them a quick source of energy and nutrients that can help blood glucose levels quickly return to normal after a long period without food. Meanwhile, the tradition also holds that dates should be eaten in odd numbers, which are significant in Islam as many of its prescribed acts of worship involve odd numbers—such as praying five times a day—a numerological preference that may be meant to highlight the ultimate oneness of God. The importance of these traditions in Yemen is reflected in the work of local non-profits, who often distribute dates during Ramadan in camps for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) or to otherwise vulnerable families. However, today Osama laments that outside of the holy month, demand for dates has been declining in Yemen.[6]
“Now people just eat dates during Ramadan or on formal occasions when they are really considered essential,” says Osama. “There are still a few people who eat them regularly with most of their meals, but many have stopped eating them at all.”
Some associate the drop in date consumption in Yemen with a change in local drinking habits. Sweet dates were a favored accompaniment to the spicy Arabic coffee once preferred in the country—however, they pair less well with the heavily sweetened tea that is now more popular. Meanwhile, others say the taste for dates has declined as people turned to growing produce that is less labor-intensive and typically more profitable than cultivating date palms. However, regardless of the reason for the waning popularity of dates in Yemen, it may be a trend worth reversing since the homegrown fruit with a long shelf-life may be an effective means of supporting the 2.7 million pregnant or breastfeeding women in Yemen who are undernourished.[7]
“In Yemen, we advise pregnant women to eat dates to strengthen their uterus and make their labor easier,” explains Dr. Hanan, a Yemeni medical professional who provides consulting services to healthcare interventions in Yemen. “We also advise them to eat dates after delivery to help the uterus recover and to alleviate any post-partum bleeding.” Medical studies support this advice, showing that consuming dates in late pregnancy can decrease the length of labor, reduce the need for oxytocin to accelerate labor, and prevent postpartum hemorrhage. Moreover, iron-rich dates can help to mitigate iron deficiency anemia—a condition that afflicts nearly 70 percent of Yemeni women, and which is particularly dangerous for expectant mothers. Furthermore, with over 55 percent of children under five years old in Yemen now reported to be suffering from serious malnourishment, Yemen’s expectant mothers may also be giving their unborn children an edge when they eat dates. Consumed regularly, dates are a good source of prenatal folate, which helps reduce the likelihood of birth defects, and they also provide vitamin K, which helps a growing baby develop strong bones.[8] Thus, when non-profits in Yemen distribute dates to vulnerable families during Ramadan, it not only represents a psychosocial impact for devout Muslims—but also an important nutritional impact. Unfortunately, most of the dates donated and distributed during the month come from Saudi Arabia.
“Yemeni dates are of higher quality than dates from the Gulf—from Saudi Arabia, but the difference is in the way they are processed,” says Osama. “Saudi Arabia is much more developed, and they have many different ways of processing their dates. All of us Yemeni farmers still rely on ancient methods for everything related to tending our groves—there are no modern methods here. From collecting the pollen clusters all the way through harvesting and processing the dates, it’s all old methods—so it takes a lot of effort, and it’s a bit expensive. We are not engineers; we are just farmers.”
Imported dates—which also benefit from more sophisticated packaging and marketing than Yemeni dates—as well as changes in local consumption habits, are now among the growing existential threats facing Yemen’s date groves, alongside climate change. Date palms are climate-hardy and can withstand harsh conditions to live for hundreds of years, however climate shocks in the Hadhramout have been testing the stalwart trees over the last decade. One such shock came in the form of a tropical depression that made landfall in June 2020, and sent torrential floods raging through Wadi Hajar, collapsing vital irrigation canals and dams. Floods in 2021 destroyed thousands more date palms in the valley, and production has since decreased by over 65 percent. The wet conditions also led to the proliferation of the Dubas bug—a pest that feeds on the sap of date palms, turning the dates sour, or killing them before they ripen. Unchecked, a Dubas infestation will weaken a date palm and stunt its growth until it dies.[9]
As a result of such shocks, some grove owners in Wadi Hajar lost all their trees and could not recover, so they searched for work as day laborers in nearby groves that still stood. However, there were not enough jobs to go around. Those who could not find work in the shrinking groves migrated to the city to look for other employment. Meanwhile, those without the skills to compete for urban livelihoods in Yemen’s war-torn economy were left vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups.[10] As for Osama, his grove in Wadi Hadhramout is still surviving. However, the same climate changes driving the floods that swept away irrigation infrastructure are also driving higher temperatures that are increasing the amount of water needed to sustain Hadhramout’s date palms. “The biggest problem the people here face now is how to irrigate the palm trees,” says Osama. “They were using diesel pumps, but now the diesel is too expensive, so they switched to electric pumps, but the electricity is expensive, too. We really need solar panels to operate the pumps. That would solve a lot of problems, but they are also expensive.”
Ironically, the date palms now succumbing to Yemen’s climate shocks may themselves be a key to preventing worse climate outcomes. Dr. Khaled Ba Wahedi, Director of the Center for Environmental Studies and Water Resources at Hadhramout University, has noted that palms are large trees that absorb substantial quantities of carbon dioxide, thereby tempering the progression of climate change, which he says “has become a ghost haunting the entire world.”[11] For now, extreme rainfall and high temperatures are projected to haunt Yemen and its palms with increasing intensity in the coming decades as climate change accelerates. Unmitigated, this will exacerbate the multidimensional poverty[12] in which Yemen’s population is already entrenched, and the resilience of farmers like Osama will reach its limits. Meanwhile, like the work of tending a palm grove, revitalizing Yemen’s artisanal date industry will be no small task—however the nutritional, environmental, economic, and cultural benefits of such an undertaking may have a restorative impact far beyond Hadhramout’s secluded valleys.[13]
[1] https://www.khuyut.com/article/dying-palm-trees, https://www.khuyut.com/article/date-imports, International Labor Organization
[2] Names changed due to conflict-related sensitivities in Yemen.
[3] Hadhramout, Al Hodeidah, Al Mahra, Shabwa, Al-Jawf, Abyan, Lahj, Ma’rib, Taiz, Sa’ada, and Hajjah
[4] https://reefyemen.net/archives/1573542, https://www.khuyut.com/article/dying-palm-trees, https://www.khuyut.com/article/date-imports
[5] For devout Muslims, the month of Ramadan is a season to pray, fast, reflect, and seek God’s forgiveness for their sins. Ramadan is recognized as the lunar month during which Muhammad received the initial revelations of the Qur’an, and fasting during the month is one of the five pillars of Islamic practice.
[6] https://south24.net/news/newse.php?nid=3393, Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar, Governors State University
[7] https://webapps.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/1985/85B09_254_engl.pdf, Islamic Relief
[8] https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/dates-during-pregnancy#other-dried-fruits, National Library of Medicine
[9] The Yemen Policy Center, The World Bank, South24, Yemen Policy Center, Khuyut, https://www.khuyut.com/article/dying-palm-trees
[10] https://south24.net/news/newse.php?nid=3393, Yemen Policy Center, https://www.khuyut.com/article/palm-trees-death
[11] https://www.khuyut.com/article/palm-trees-death
[12] Multidimensional poverty measures emphasize that people can suffer multiple deprivations at the same time beyond financial hardship that together have long-term destructive consequences on the population—especially youth. For example, households might not only be monetarily poor—they may also not have access to clean drinking water or electricity, and they might lack access to healthcare or education.
[13] https://sanaacenter.org/the-yemen-review/oct-dec/24105, The World Bank, The World Food Program
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