Students in Lesotho fighting climate change through livestock
Mount Moorosi in Quthing district, is covered by dry and rocky mountains. The community is semi-arid and prone to intensive erosion and water scarcity. Situated in the rain shadow of the high mountains, droughts have been increasing and frequent lately, affecting the inhabitants who are predominantly livestock keepers.
The majority of Mount Moorosi community depend on mixed farming of crops and livestock to support their livelihoods. They keep animals such as sheep, pigs, cattle, chicken, for home consumption and selling to earn an income, while donkeys and horses are kept for transportation.
In 2016, major losses of animals were experienced as a result of severe drought that led to widespread water shortages, threatening the food and nutritional security of the community.
“We have experienced climate change in our area. Rains are erratic. We are teaching students innovative ways in agriculture to adapt to climate vulnerabilities. The kind of technologies that are easy to replicate back at their homes, such as growing crops under shade net to reduce evaporation during hot weather,” said Lihotetso Moleleki, Agriculture teacher at Maseribane High School.
In a bid to support the most vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), working with the Ministry of Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation of Lesotho have implemented a project to reduce the vulnerability and promote adaptive capacity to effectively respond to climate change impacts in most vulnerable zones called “Strengthening Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation through Support to Integrated Watershed Management”.
Getting everyone on board
FAO believes that dealing with climate change at the local level should involve all structures of the community including schools.
The project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the Least Developed Countries Fund, in 2019 provided Maseribane High School with five (one boar and four sows) high yielding breed of pigs and 15 bags of feeds. One pig has the capacity to produce up to 11 piglets in one go. The school had previously used local pig breeds during the studies.
“We have experienced climate change at home, at times the rains come during the wrong season, and sometimes it is very hot. Some time back our pigs died due to lack of water, and extreme hot weather condition,” said Lieketseng Sophia Lesetla, a Grade 12 student at Maseribane High School.
Climate resilient animals
She is pursuing Agriculture studies at the school. Her class has over 500 students. During the practical work, they take proper care of the pigs by cleaning them, cleaning the stalls, feeding, breeding, and other management practices like cutting the tails, and vaccination.
Sophia’s family of ten members keeps three pigs. She has been able to transfer the knowledge and innovations from school to managing the animals at home.
“The bad weather conditions had made me hate farming, and I wanted to be a nurse to get a good job. However, when we started looking after this good pig breed, I realized a big change. They are resilient to climate change”, the 20-year-old Sophia said with a smile, “I have made a decision I want to do a piggery business because I will be getting a lot of money while adapting to climate change,” she added.
“Since I started applying the knowledge to pigs at home, the pigs have become healthy because of good care. One pig that used to give birth to four piglets or even less has now increased to six piglets,” added Sophia.
Improve nutrition at school
The school has used the manure from the pigs for the school vegetable gardens as a means to reduce use of chemical fertilizer. In addition, the school sells the pigs to community and that means income for the school used to continue buying farm tools.
“The pigs provide healthy meat for much needed nutrition for the students through the food they get at the school’s food programme,” says Kabelo Thulo, another Agriculture teacher at the school.
To increase more involvement of the school communities, FAO has built a water tank, keyhole garden, and distributed vegetable seeds and fruit trees at Sekhonyana Primary school in Quthing district to promote responsible land and water management, and improve the food and nutrition security of the community.