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06 June 2008: Lesotho Gardens Relieve Food Crisis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesotho's vast highlands plains are spectacular places for tourists. Broad and treeless, they offer stunning views of the mountains looming over shimmering gold grasslands.

But they are terrible for farmers. Decades of intensive agricullture has stripped the land of trees, and exposed soils to wind and rain. Erosion has created countless miniature canyons that split the plains everywhere you look. The already thin mountain soils have lost virtually all their productive nutrients.

According to the Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Efraim Lehata, a typical farmer in Lesotho's maize belt would be lucky to squeeze half a tonne of grain from each acre of land.

Global forces

Forces now shaping global food prices are way beyond the country's control. "The last summer season, most of our tractors couldn't go to the fields because of the cost of diesel. Now that the price has doubled, we're not expecting any to be able to go," Mr. Lehata said. "It's very diffucult."

The minister bemaons the fact that his country, which used to do well out of farm exports to beighbouring South Africa, now depends on food handouts from organisations like the Wold Food Programme.

Keyhole gardens

Lesotho cannot wait for the UN food summit in Rome to come up with ideas, so through the support of development organisations like Teba Development and Care Lesotho it has development some of its own.

Mahaha Mphou, a food garden owner, does not know much about global economics, but does know how to grow vegetables. She and the rest of her family of 10 have become some of the most enthusiastic evengelists for home-grown idea that has almost certainly saved them from starvation. They are now thriving on what have become known as "keyhole gardens". They are round gardens of about two metres in diametre and raised to waist-height to make them easy for the sick and elderly to work. Inside the garden are layers of tin cans, mulch and ash which together provide the nutrients to make the gardens extraodinarily productive.

Mahaha says they have also transformed the family's diet: "We're growing so many things, from beetroot to spinach, onions, tomatoes, carrots - everything"

Mr. Lehata acknowledged that the gardens alone will not transform Lesotho, "but we've been really surprised by just how well they've worked", he said. "We expected them to disappear after half a season, but you can see that although we have such cold winters, they are productive all year round. It's been realy helpful to our people."