Africa-Press – Lesotho. World Food Programme (WFP) through the adaptation project called Improving Adaptive Capacity of Vulnerable and Food Insecure Populations in Lesotho (IACOV) will
support government’s efforts to ensure that farmers’ surplus produce reach structured markets. WFP Representative and Country Director Aurore Rusiga said agriculture plays a
significant role in Lesotho’s economy and over 70 percent of the country’s population that lives in rural areas depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for
employment and livelihood. She said the sector has the highest potential to increase food security, reduce rural poverty, and generate both on and off-farm
employment opportunities, as well as contribute to the sustainability of economic growth and resilience for the country. Rusiga emphasized that WFP will, through this project work with the extension services
of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to improve agricultural productivity for sustained food and nutrition security and diversified livelihoods.
She said to promote sustainability, households will be supported through market linkages with the private sector and institutional buyers for their surplus production to benefit from remunerative prices.
“Collaboration with other relevant line ministries and all parties is especially important for
successful execution of the WFP Lesotho Country Strategic Plan 7 which contributes to the Lesotho National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP II) that advocates for jobs creation and supports economic growth,” Rusiga said.
The Country Director however indicated that Lesotho’s agricultural sector suffers from low levels of productivity and commercialization which has made the
country heavily dependent on food imports to meet domestic consumption needs. “The NSDP II has agriculture as one of the key areas for the development and growth
of the country’s economy with the type of agriculture practiced being subsistence with minimal commercial farming, across ten districts of Lesotho. ” She said.
She further said in an effort to improve the business environment, the Government of Lesotho has shown interest to support the local purchasing, a preference to
buy locally produced goods and services over those produced outside the country. She said this will drive the agricultural sector development and economic returns and may benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area
(ACFTA). Buying food commodities locally gives the farmers an opportunity to
access the local markets which catalysis value chain development and results in increased productivity and production hence increased household incomes and
food security. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Director of Marketing Lekhooe Makhate explained that their department is mandated to facilitate market developmentfor
agricultural products and to promote agricultural commercialization, value-adding, absorption of local productsinto global marketsand development of efficient marketing systems.
He further said market linkages are meant to facilitate the flow of produce between the different levels of the marketing system. It improves relations or partnerships
between farmers and buyers and minimises conflicts or misunderstandings between involved parties. “Marketing linkages also harmonises marketing bottlenecks
such as quality and price issues, minimises post-harvest losses. Facilitates mutual bargaining power between farmers and traders and farmers have ample number of market-options,” he said.
He said the Ministry has so far made a progress of introducing ‘Marakeng Application and this initiative is designed in such a way that buyers and farming enterprises connect remotely to enter into business transactions.
He said there is also a livestock auction whereby about 1507 farmers have been linked to the markets countrywide. Lastly they introduced buyer-seller platformswherean estimate of 119 horticultural farmers have been linked to about
14 traders. The Ministry’s Principal Secretary (PS) Nchakha Makara added that there
are many challenges such as Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and budgets that are slowing the progress. He said they are hopeful that with this kind of
interventions by their partners, they will be able to address some of these challenges. “We are challenged to cope with climate change,” he noted and demonstrated his relief that WFP has come at the right time to help their farmers to be resilient to the effects of climate change.
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