By Kefiloe Kajane
The Lesotho National Farmers’ Association (Lenafu) has urged that climate change has brought changes in weather patterns with droughts and heavy rainfalls hitting on the farming community.
Lenafu programmes manager Khotso Lepheana, Lepheana indicated that the lack of rainfall has created poor agricultural produce as the water is lost for the plants while the soil surface is lost in many instances. This means water from the plants and the soil surface is being lost quicker than it is recharged.
Speaking to this publication this week, Lepheana explained that the impact of drought on crop production is severely felt in Lesotho especially in the mountains and foothills where planting season is shorter than in the lowlands.
He said the lack of rain during the planting season forces the majority of farmers to fallow their fields since crop production in Lesotho is largely on rain-fed agriculture rather than irrigation.
“We estimate more than 40 percent fallowness on arable land per year and as such, that has negative effects on the farming community in both social and economic comfort. This always results in little quantities of food production during harvesting season and subsequently rise in food and nutrition insecurities.
“The impact on livestock is much felt as the rangelands are steadily collapsing- grass species and diversity in the rangelands have declined progressively. The drought has affected the quantity and quality of available water for livestock drinking and for domestic purposes. Some of the permanent springs have dried up while in some areas wetlands are shrinking dramatically and water discharge curtailed as a result.
“Lesotho will experience more challenges associated with the climate change; for example, the dams where farmers harvest water for irrigation and livestock drinking will reduce to silt. The drought situation will affect the quality and quantity of available water for livestock, crops, drinking and basic hygiene,” he said.
He further said fruiting trees have been one of the success stories for Lesotho. However, the quality of the fruits is now also being affected by the drought and this means low yield and finally the loss of money to the fruit producers in Lesotho.
Lepheana said drought has affected normal cropping, grazing practices and rotation patterns in most areas of Lesotho. He indicated that the rangelands are severely affected such that there is no adequate grass for livestock to feed on.
“Ordinarily, we can say the quality of food produced has been progressively affected as a result of the climate change. Crop quality has deteriorated as of inadequate water supply in the soil system. The drought has also brought about pest and disease infestation in some areas affecting the quality of crops. The impact is also seen at the menu development level where some crop varieties are being severely affected by drought until they are completely dead leading to challenges during the development of the menu which may require such products,” Lepheana said.
Extreme weather is slamming crops across the globe, bringing with it the threat of further food inflation at a time costs are already hovering near the highest in a decade and hunger is on the rise.
This series of misfortunes underscores what scientists have been warning about for years: Climate change and its associated weather volatility will make it increasingly harder to produce enough food for the world, with the poorest nations typically feeling the hardest blow. In some cases, social and political unrest follows.
The Food Price Index from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization rose for 12 consecutive months through May before easing in June to 124.6 points, still up 34 percent from a year earlier. The index measures the international prices of a basket of food commodities.
No other industry is more at the mercy of sun, rain, and heat than agriculture, where changes in the weather can upend a farmer’s fortunes overnight. It’s also an industry that’s become extremely globalized and concentrated, creating a precarious situation where an extreme weather event in one place is bound to have ripples everywhere.
