The millet harvest was inaugurated in Al-Munirah District, Hodeidah Governorate, within the framework of the project to cultivate hard lands and sand dunes, under the auspices of the local authority in the governorate and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, Dr. Radwan Al-Rubai, indicated that the inauguration of the millet harvest for the 1446 AH season comes in implementation of the directives of the leader of the revolution, Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi, to expand the cultivation of the desert, hard lands and sand dunes.

He noted the level of productivity of this crop and the vast agricultural areas in Tihama that were planted with millet, reaching more than 100 thousand acres.

He pointed out that this season will have a great impact in achieving self-sufficiency, reducing the import bill and cultivating basic crops, calling on the private sector and consumers to buy this local product instead of imported ones.

Minister Al-Rubai considered the inauguration of the millet harvest a message to the enemies that the people of Yemen are moving towards self-sufficiency, as they are fighting the battle of "the promised conquest and holy jihad".

He said, "We are coming towards self-sufficiency, with pride, victory, dignity, independence and freedom as long as we have our strength and self-sufficiency and as long as we can do so to confront the enemies and meet the needs of our people for basic products and crops".

While the Governor of Hodeidah, Abdullah Atifi, referred to the successes achieved by the governorate in reaching the production of large quantities of grain crops, especially millet, during the winter season in Tihama.

He pointed out that the inauguration of the millet harvest in Al-Munirah District is the result of efforts made within the framework of the directives of the wise revolutionary leadership to expand the cultivation of the desert and sand dunes to benefit from them in increasing productivity and reaching the stage of self-sufficiency.

The governor, Ateifi, called on the private sector to coordinate with agricultural associations and the Agricultural Cooperative Union to purchase the various grain crops produced by farmers through agricultural associations.

In turn, the head of the General Authority for the Development of Tihama, Ali Qadi, indicated that the current winter season was promising and achieved abundant productivity, especially of the millet crop, considering these results the fruit of efforts made in response to the directives of the leader of the revolution, Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi.

He called on traders and bakeries to work on introducing part of these crops into the compound flour to benefit from the nutritional value that the local millet crop is unique in, urging the creation of awareness programs to change the dietary pattern and return to the local dietary pattern.

The inauguration was attended by a number of members of the local authority in the governorate, specialists from the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of research bodies and institutions, and the Al-Munira Agricultural Cooperative Society.