Ask 90-year-old Rammitsane Matela how climate conditions have changed over the years for the farmers in the fields of rural Lesotho and he does not need to stretch his memory far to find the answer. "Heavy rains and drought are things that started recently," he says of the extreme weather events which, as in so many other parts of the world, are increasingly afflicting Lesotho, a landlocked country in southern Africa. Flat-topped hills and mountains, rocky crevices and dongas - deep gullies formed by soil erosion - mark much of Lesotho's landscape, giving it a lunar-like appearance. During strong downpours, the dongas turn into torrents that drain away the increasingly scarce fertile topsoil from cultivable tracts of land that lie in the valleys.