Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho needs urgent financial support on agriculture adaptation and mitigation as well as other related initiatives such as rural electrification, hydropower generation and climate information provision. This was revealed at the launch of the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CAS) has found.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Hon Mahala Molapo showed that agriculture plays a major role in Lesotho thus the need to be proactive towards the effects of climate change which is accelerating its speed.
“Climate change and food insecurity are some of the major development challenges facing African countries and Lesotho is no exception,” Molapo said.
He said the profile (CAS) is going to help Lesotho to make clear investment plans for the country especially in agriculture, so as to make sure that there are appropriate interventions towards these negative effects that are brought by climate change.
CAS on the other hand shows that Lesotho does not only need financial support but it also requires greater support in terms of technology transfer for climate smart practices as well as capacity building of farmers, cooperatives, development partners and extension agents.
“The three interlinked areas of finance, technology and capacity are mentioned in a number of climate change related documents including the country’s National Determined Contributions (NDC), and efforts to support these three aspects need to be well supported and coordinated through the relevant government ministries,” CAS profile shows.
At present there is limited information on the costs of adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the agricultural sector and detailed assessment to determine these needs will support better long term planning of climate smart agriculture finance for the country.
