Africa-Press – Lesotho. Although sale of farming inputs (seeds and fertilisers) is running smoothly across the country, demand remains high and forces the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition to distribute the inputs at resource centres regularly.
This was said by the Ministry’s Chief Information Officer Mr. Lereko Masupha in an interview with the Agency, appealing to farmers to register their names and required quantities at resource centres to make it easy for the Ministry to deliver at once on specified dates.
“Farmers have a tendency of buying in batches and make it difficult for the Ministry to deliver required quantities” he said.
He further said procurement challenges causes delivery delays even though the Ministry has so far never run short of the farming inputs.
One of the farmers and also Basotho Agricultural Machinery Association Central Region Chairperson, Mr. Motlohi Sekoala appealed to the Ministry to address an issue of a system which is always reported to be shut down as it causes delays and long queues.
However he said they are satisfied with the service as they have so far never received a report that the farming inputs have finished.
Meanwhile the government subsidised fertilisers by 80 percent while seeds, pesticides and herbicides are subsidised by 70 percent.
Reports from the Ministry indicate that Lesotho has an arable land of approximately 486,000 hectares, most of which is under cultivation. In addition, about 85 percent of that area is utilised for grain crop production and much of the rest of the land area is utilised for extensive animal production.
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