Land reform was a major policy issue in the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). In the socially stratified system before independence from Great Britain most large agricultural holdings were owned by relatively wealthy landowners and/or rulers of mini-states. In spate (flood) irrigated areas, large landowners owned the most fertile lands. These were cultivated by poor farmers on a sharecropping or rental basis. Land-owners provided seed, fertilizer, and other agricultural inputs…