By Derek Vanbuskirk
The U.S. has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into humanitarian aid for Yemen, including hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat, but the assistance has harmed food production in Yemen — actually undermining local food production while farmers devote the country’s scarce water to growing an addictive drug.
Foreign grain can make it harder for Yemeni farmers to compete, pushing them toward khat (Catha edulis), a highly profitable leaf drug that consumes enormous amounts of water while millions of Yemenis face acute food insecurity. (RELATED: One American, At Least 11 Others Killed After Houthis Launch Missile Attack On Major International Airport)
Khat is classified as an illegal controlled substance in the U.S. and contains cathinone, a central nervous system stimulant with effects similar to cocaine and methamphetamine. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers it a Schedule I substance, along with heroin and LSD.
A 2014 policy report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization described khat as the “mild addictive leaf that dominates life in Yemen,” as the drug accounts for about 10 percent of household budgets, with men spending nearly five hours a day chewing it as women and children increasingly began to partake as well.
Khat also accounts for 37 percent of the country’s water use, according to the UN report. Growing the plant is far more profitable than growing food, despite requiring much more water and offering no real nutritional benefit.
An estimated 500 liters — just over 132 gallons — of water are used to produce a single bag of khat needed to achieve one high. Unsophisticated farming techniques exacerbate this water demand, with methods like drip irrigation unheard of among most khat farmers.
Since the 2014 UN report, khat cultivation has expanded by over 40 percent in many parts of the country. Civil war-driven instability has contributed to the trend, as khat remains far more profitable than growing food despite rising diesel prices needed to pump groundwater, according to Musaed Aklan, a senior water researcher at the Yemeni think tank Sana’a Center.
The growth in khat production can be traced to international firms and development agencies that urged the Yemeni government to subsidize cash crops over agricultural production in the 1970s and 1980s. This left the nation dependent on food imports, necessitating further subsidies for grain imports and further disincentivizing local grain production, Aklan reported.
These changes artificially skewed grain supply and demand. Along with more disposable income and expanded road networks, they created conditions for farmers to produce khat, which kept prices high and demand strong. The result was a nearly 80 percent profit margin, making khat about 10 to 20 times more profitable than most competing crops, the center said.
For decades, Western countries and international organizations have stepped in after one conflict or another to offer Yemen aid in ways and under conditions that did little to help the average Yemeni and often proved counterproductive to the country’s efforts to gain economic footing.
Now, 18.3 million people in the country face “acute food insecurity,” creating “one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises,” according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
Between fiscal years 2016 and 2024, U.S. humanitarian assistance commitments to Yemen routinely ranged from $800 million to over $1.5 billion annually, according to USAFacts.
In 2018 alone, the U.S. donated 385,000 metric tons of soft white wheat to Yemen, enough to fill approximately 17,000 semi-trucks and more than the entire export of China that year. Wheat donations to Yemen represent approximately 30 percent of all U.S. wheat food aid donations. (RELATED: Trump Invokes Rare Authority To Cancel Nearly $1,000,000,000 In Congressionally Approved Spending)
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has sharply slashed foreign aid, effectively dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a major channel for U.S. foreign assistance. The U.S. has historically provided up to 40 percent of all tracked food and emergency relief entering Yemen.
The cuts come as Yemen faces a widening humanitarian funding gap. The international community requested $2.16 billion in emergency humanitarian relief for Yemen in 2026, but as of the latest available UN OCHA data, only 22 percent of the requested amount had been funded.
Some U.S. assistance continued in fiscal year 2025, when the U.S. obligated $54 million for Yemen, including $21.7 million allocated to nutrition and humanitarian assistance.
“The WFP strategy of grain dumping harms the future well-being of Yemeni farmers who cannot compete with free food,” Harvard instructor and Yemen historian Asher Orkaby said, adding that much of the aid given to Yemen empowered the local terrorists while incentivizing war instead of “contributing to a resolution of the conflict and developing Yemen’s long-term stability”
Orkaby said this overcorrection stems from media and aid programs exaggerating yet simplifying Yemen’s problem by saying that millions are on the brink of starvation so that they can sell more papers or rake in more donations.
“The unchecked dumping of large quantities of imported food by humanitarian organizations can cripple local farmers, leading to a vicious cycle of impoverishment,” Orkaby said before offering his own solution. “Sustainable aid models draw instead upon locally sourced emergency food supplies to the furthest extent possible, knowing that such an investment-centric approach will reduce dependence in future years.”
Aklan said funding studies and risk assessments should be a priority for policymakers. He added that aid agencies should account for the specific economic, political and environmental needs of different regions rather than continue pushing a one-size-fits-all program of dumping money and food into the country.
The Yemeni water expert said organizations and governments managing food production, aid and agricultural resources should be answerable to local communities rather than international donors or distant bureaucratic authorities.
Aklan told the Daily Caller that while these recommendations should be followed, “Achieving full food self-sufficiency in Yemen is simply not feasible,” as food imports will remain essential to counter food insecurity and safeguard Yemen’s scarce water resources.
In the meantime, Aklan said, “It is crucial to curb the continued expansion of khat cultivation.”
A State Department spokesman told the Daily Caller that while the department does not fund emergency food aid or food security assistance in Yemen, it has “zero tolerance for waste, theft, fraud, or diversion of U.S. resources” away from the civilian populations who need them most. (EXCLUSIVE: Somali Lawmaker Shares How US Pays The Price Of Somali Terror And Trafficking)
The spokesman added that the department is aware that the heavily taxpayer-funded WFP is active in Yemen but stated that it does not provide food assistance in Houthi-controlled territory.
