Health Issues in the Mountains of Yemen: Healing Practices as Part of Farmers’ Traditional Knowledge

The medicinal properties of plants have no value without the knowledge to identify and make use of the plants, and this knowledge is ineffective without people to keep it alive and make it available for all. This chapter discusses the specific linkages that many mountain Yemeni farming communities have developed with their particular agro-ecosystems to make use of wild and cultivated plants for their daily healing needs. The authors are involved in sustainable agricultural development founded on indigenous knowledge and local genetic resources, and their objective is to highlight the intimate relationship between the traditional Yemeni farmer and his environment in which the 'man-plant' linkage in a quite natural and almost unconscious character remains an essential, but very fragile, keystone. Plant-based healing practices used to treat major preoccupation of the population fertility and fecundity. Keywords: agro-ecosystems; cultivated plants; indigenous knowledge; mountain Yemeni farming communities; plant-based healing practices