Khat is grown as a pruned shrub from cuttings, on terraces and smallholdings in the highlands of Yemen, Ethiopia and Kenya. It takes three to four years before the first light harvest and five to eight years before a plantation reaches its normal yield, after which it can produce for half a century or more. This page describes that farming system as recorded in the botanical literature.
Legal note. In the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany you may not grow khat for its leaves. The descriptions below are about the countries where khat is a legal crop. Details per country are on the page khat and the law.
Where khat is a crop
The main commercial growing areas lie in a narrow band from Yemen to the Meru highlands of Kenya, according to the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD 2013, paragraph 32). Yemen, Ethiopia and Kenya are the three big producers, and they are also the main places where khat is chewed.
PROTA4U, the plant database of Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, gives the conditions: highlands at 1,500 to 2,500 m, average daily temperatures of 16 to 22 °C, and 800 to 1,000 mm of rain over four to six months. In Ethiopia the south-east around Harar is the principal region, with some 10,000 ha. In Kenya, where khat is called miraa, it is grown mainly in Meru on the north-eastern slopes of Mount Kenya and in the Nyambeni Hills.
Planting material: cuttings
Almost every khat plant in a farm started as a cutting. Growers take pieces of 30 to 50 cm from upright, so-called orthotropic, branches or from suckers near the ground. Cuttings from the side branches root poorly and give weak plants. They are rooted in a nursery or, more often, pushed straight into the field during the rainy season, one or two per planting hole (PROTA4U).
Cuttings keep a known local form going. Ethiopian farmers distinguish forms such as 'Dallota' with small pale green leaves, 'Dimma' with medium-sized red leaves and 'Mohedella' with green to olive leaves. In Yemen forms are named after places or colours. There are no formal breeding programmes. Seed hardly plays a part, which is why the germination page has so little farm data to report.
Spacing and terraces
On level land or gentle slopes the plants stand 1.5 to 2.5 m apart in rows 2 to 2.5 m apart. Where khat is kept as a low shrub, the spacing is narrower. In Yemen and south-eastern Ethiopia much of it grows on mountain terraces, often with room for only one row per terrace.
Khat is mainly a smallholder crop. During the first five to six years farmers grow food crops between the young plants; after that, the shade becomes too heavy. In Ethiopia a few rows of khat alternating with rows of coffee is a familiar pattern.
The first years
| Stage | What happens | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Years 1 to 4 | Plants grow undisturbed to about 0.8 to 1 m | PROTA4U |
| First harvest | Most leaves are stripped to force young shoots | PROTA4U |
| Years 5 to 8 | Normal yield is reached | PROTA4U |
| Mature plantation | Pruned to 2.5 to 5 m, productive for 50 to 75 years | PROTA4U |
| Intensive Yemeni system | Kept at about 50 cm, first harvest after about one year | PROTA4U |
After three to four years of growth the farmer removes most of the leaves. That pushes the plant into making young shoots, and young shoots are the harvest. From then on, regular pruning keeps the trees between 2.5 and 5 m. An old plantation is rejuvenated by cutting all stems back close to the ground and letting new suckers take over.
Around Rada' in the central highlands of Yemen a more intensive system has developed: khat kept as a shrub of about 50 cm, permanently irrigated, fertilised and sprayed, which starts producing after about a year.
Water and inputs
Khat is grown on rainfall in its home range, but extra irrigation in the dry season raises yields and brings a crop in the off-season, when prices are higher. In parts of Yemen that receive only 300 to 400 mm of rain a year, khat is always irrigated from wells. Small farmers rarely fertilise, although nitrogen and manure increase yields considerably.
That reliance on groundwater is a public issue in Yemen. Estimates of the share of the country's water used for khat circulate widely, but they come from secondary sources and vary, so we do not repeat a figure here.
Picking and bundling
Harvesting means breaking off young shoots, two to three times a week in season, early in the morning so the leaves stay fresh. The shoots are trimmed to about 40 cm, sometimes 80 to 100 cm, and tied into bundles. PROTA describes a 500 g bundle as giving about 150 g of tender leaves and tips, enough for a two-hour chewing session. In the intensive Yemeni system only the top 10 cm of each twig, with about three leaves, is picked.
Speed matters after picking. The active alkaloid cathinone breaks down within days, and a bundle should not be older than two to three days. That is why khat is sold fresh, wrapped to keep it moist, and flown to markets abroad. The chemistry behind this is explained on the page about Catha edulis and its alkaloids.
Yields and income
A well-managed orchard in Yemen or Ethiopia can give up to 2 tonnes of fresh shoots per hectare per year; the Ethiopian average is reported at 800 to 1,000 kg. PROTA notes that in northern Yemen khat has overtaken coffee as the main cash crop and accounts for about half of the agricultural sector's gross domestic product, with incomes five to ten times those from vegetables. In the mountains near Harar khat has largely replaced coffee.