By Matṧeliso Phulane
The 2024-2025 budget speech has hit the right chords with those in agriculture, with the Lesotho National Farmers Union (LENAFU) lauding the funds allocated to the sector and the programmes earmarked to be implemented in the new financial year that starts on April 1.
Finance minister Retṧelisitsoe Matlanyane presented the budget speech – a strategy for “Building Resilience, Fostering Growth” – on Wednesday this week.
Matlanyane indicated that agriculture, often referred to as the backbone of the country’s economy, holds immense potential for driving economic development, fostering private sector-led job creation, and ensuring food and nutrition security for all Basotho citizens. She noted that a budget of M1.3 billion has been assigned to bolster agriculture.
She pointed out the time has come for Lesotho to implement a comprehensive agriculture transformation support programme to improve Lesotho’s agricultural sector and productivity.
The programme, according to the minister, will include enhancing extension services support to farmers, improving agricultural data collection efforts, facilitating access to affordable finance, improving irrigation infrastructure footprint, supporting agricultural value addition activities as well as storage and logistics.
“Looking ahead, our projects and programmes for the upcoming financial years underscore our unwavering commitment to agricultural development. From the Intensive Crop Production program to the Wool and Mohair Value Chain Competitiveness Project, each initiative is designed to propel us towards our goals of sustainable food security and enhanced farmer engagement.
“MCA (America’s Millennium Challenge Account) Lesotho) will invest M2.301 billion over a period of five years in agriculture, to support the development of commercial horticulture in four irrigation schemes located in Leribe (Tsoili-Tsoili, Likhakeng, Peka, Kolonyama) and Mohale’s Hoek (Phamong).
“The project will further strategically identify anchor farmers locally and externally to form partnerships with local small holder farmers and landowners. These anchor farmer investors will bring their own financial resources, technical expertise, and existing local and export markets. The initiative is expected to increase horticulture production, create jobs, provide business opportunities, and reduce high dependence on imports,” Matlanyane said.
LENAFU programme manager, Khotso Lepheana, said the way the budget is structured might be difficult for some people to understand, especially the part where it addresses the issue of private sector-led job creation.
Lepheana is particularly intrigued that the public sector is going to create a conducive environment for the private sector’s participation in agriculture.
“That is where the government stated things like storage, processing and many others. This is why in her speech (Matlanyane) she even called on the private sector to come on board. In my understanding we are still involved with the private sector.
“The introduction of the Public Private Sector Dialogue programme in the prime minister’s office means farmers will also be engaged on issues relating to the agriculture sector, and this is laudable. The outcomes of such dialogue become commitment going forward.
“In terms of job creation, I also noted market access in her speech when she said the government is going to facilitate formulation of a new export policy. Enhancing infrastructure development through public-private partnerships means if we have high production which fails to go to the customer, it will still of good value because of storage facilities,” Lepheana said.
He also welcomed the introduction of technology in production, saying it will stand the agriculture sector in good stead in terms of competitiveness, like it is the case with the textile sector which is high mechanised.
He added that mechanisation will require people with skills and this opens up new employment opportunities in agriculture.
“It is, however, interesting to note how the allocated money will be spent. Sometimes we applaud the budget allocated to the sector not knowing if it will benefit internal initiatives. So, let’s wait and see,” Lepheana indicated.
There is not much of a difference between the new budget and that for the 2023-2024 financial year whose overriding objective was to accelerate inclusive, employment generating and poverty reducing economic growth.
The economic strategy for the financial year 23/24 focused on economic reconstruction and recovery while enhancing growth and building resilience through economic transformation from a consumer-based economy to a producer and export-driven economy.
This was to be achieved through structural transformation and sizable investments into the following productive sectors: agriculture, industries that build valued chains to produce jobs, the extractive sector with the aim to enhance beneficiation of Basotho in the exploitation of our natural resources, reconstruction of infrastructure and building of new infrastructure that facilitates active participation of the private sector, strengthening governance and accountability in private and public institution and leveraging on innovative technology for efficiency.
“Private sector development and participation is central in ensuring the reconstruction, recovery and resilience of the economy. The role of government is to intervene in ways that crowd-in private investment, thus encouraging growth that exploits the full capacity of our productive potential.
“Central to economic transformation and economic diversification are: a competitive investment climate, peace and stability, mobilisation and efficient intermediation of savings, technology development and adoption, investments in infrastructure that enables business development, a competent and competitive labour force and human capital that is relevant to the needs of the economy, and the effective exploitation of the demographic dividend.
“We shall focus on enhancing productivity, promoting diversification and value chain development through use of improved technology and mechanisation, especially in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors,” Matlanyane said on February 27 2023.
She had added that, as part of the road to recovery and growth that produces employment and reduces poverty the budget was anchored on the pursuit and achievement of, among others, adopting appropriate technology and advanced mechanisation including appropriate seed and fertilisers inputs as well as climate smart technologies in agriculture to increase yield of basic grains, legumes, vegetables and deciduous.
“In the same vein the government of Lesotho shall facilitate increased production of meats (poultry, beef and pork) as well as eggs, fish and milk by farmers to satisfy local demand and processing for export.”
“With the aim of ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture, farmers will be supported by continuing to increase access to agricultural inputs and provide technical support to increase productivity and output. This continued effort will increase grain production of maize from 27,900 tonnes to 438,000 tonnes, wheat from 5,700 tonnes to 48,700 tonnes and beans from 43,000 tonnes to 97,500 tonnes by 2027.
“The Ministry will continue to promote climate smart agriculture for small- and large-scale farmers using cost effective technologies. It is important to also note that the Government has developed an irrigation master plan that was developed with the support of the World Bank. The plan covers around 53, 000 hectares, with an estimated cost of over US$ 800 million. The focus for the coming fiscal year will be on supporting the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and to package the initiative to promote local and foreign investment, using different facilities that have been created to access finance.”
In this year’s budget speech, the minister fell short of divulging the strides made in the attainment of those goals.
