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[UNVERIFIED CONTENT] Three boys guarding a fruit shop in Al Tawilah, Al Mahwit Governorate, Yemen. Agriculture is the mainstay of Yemen's economy, generating more than 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) since 1990 (20.4 percent in 2005 according to the Central Bank of Yemen) and employing more than half (54.2 percent in 2003) of the working population. Numerous environmental problems hamper growth in this sector: soil erosion, sand dune encroachment, and deforestation, but the greatest problem by far is the scarcity of water. As a result of low levels of rainfall, agriculture in Yemen relies heavily on the extraction of groundwater, a resource that is being depleted. Yemen remains of the poorest countries in the Middle East and in the world.