The factors contributing to human encroachment on agricultural land by settlement at Ha Makhoathi in the Maseru District, Lesotho

Abstract

Lesotho, like most of developing countries is facing a challenge of settlement encroachment on agricultural land. For the past years, Lesotho has been experiencing urban expansion. This expansion is happening on land meant for agriculture. Industrialization and internal migration have led to rapid growth of Maseru district. Due to scarcity of planned settlement land, people tend to build their houses on agricultural land. The loopholes in Land Acts give the struggling field owners advantage to subdivide their fields and sell the plots at lower cost. These field owners usually subdivide their fields because of their low production, unemployment, lack of money to buy agricultural input and climate change. Most field owners are illiterate therefore they are unable to adopt the new methods of farming. The selling of fields does not only change their livelihood but it also poses a threat on food security as Lesotho already has limited arable land; it imports most agricultural products from South Africa. The aim of the study was to investigate the factors that contribute to human encroachment on agricultural land by settlement in Ha-Makhoathi, Maseru district. In this study Mixed Method Approached was employed in which 40 previous field owners were selected as sample and 40 questionnaires were distributed to field owners and other stakeholders. The results indicate that, most field owners sell their fields because of poor production, lack of agricultural inputs, poor land policy acts that frightens their field ownership and the rapid urban sprawl in their area. The study also reveals that Land Acts have so may loopholes and stakeholders lack cooperation. As a results, field owners sell their field for different purpose as the country lack planned settlement areas