The Role of block farming in assuring food security in Lesotho: the case of Berea, Leribe and Maseru districts

Abstract

Many developing countries are characterised by low levels of poverty caused mainly by food insecurity. There are different factors causing food insecurity in many developing countries, and changing climatic conditions especially severe drought is mentioned as the major one. However, high population increase is another cause of food insecurity in many developing countries, and Lesotho is not an exception. There are different measures used to solve the state of food insecurity in many countries, and increasing agricultural productivity is one of them. The Lesotho government has implemented different agricultural programmes to increase production in agriculture since colonialism. Although many colonial rural development strategies in Lesotho focused more on preventing and controlling soil erosion, there were some agricultural projects implemented in some parts of the country. The agricultural rural development programmes implemented in Lesotho since colonialism meant to reduce poverty and improve the living standards of people. And block farming is one of such agricultural development projects. Block farming is not a new agricultural rural development project in Lesotho. Block farming project was introduced in the Senqu River Valley Integrated Rural Development Project in the 1970s. The idea was to increase food production among Basotho farmers. This agricultural initiative was revived in the New Millennium. The government of Lesotho entered into sharecropping with subsistence farmers through block farming. The purpose of government was to reduce poverty by increasing agricultural food production in the country. And since the introduction of block farming, especially in the early stages of implementation, the lives of many farmers improved for the better. This is because they now cultivate their fields that have been left fallow for many years because of lack of agricultural inputs. However, of late, block farming is facing many challenges that affect agricultural production. As a result, it is not a profitable agricultural programme for many farmers.