Yemeni people spend about $ 7 million a day on khat, a stimulus tree chewed by 75 per cent of males, compared to 33 per cent of women, an official has said.

Launching a campaign to raise awareness among school students about the risks of khat sponsored by the Anti-Khat Al-Najat Foundation in Sana'a, advisor to Minister for Public Health and Population Abdul Wahab Al-Anesi said there is a misconception among Yemeni students that khat helps to get higher educational attainment.

We are here to correct this misconception and to tell you[the students] frankly that students who chew khat usually don't do well on exams, he said.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among students about khat risks on their future as well as introducing them to how they can contribute to fighting the tree.

Khat has many effects on the lives of the Yemeni people, as analysts say that the cultivation of khat trees consumes twice the amount of water used by citizens and occupies the largest part of arable land.

In recent years, the government has adopted many programmes to limit the cultivation of khat trees amid warnings it is affecting the country's scarce water resources.