FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) project “Building capacities and facilitating enabling environment for contract farming in Lesotho” (TCP/LES/3801) has gained attention from local and regional media and received positive exposure to the public.

The project aims to increase knowledge and build capacities of relevant stakeholders in public and private sectors, and facilitate an enabling environment for contract farming (CF) as an innovative business model for sustainable commercialization and development of agrifood value chains in Lesotho. The project has been jointly implemented by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (MoAFSN) in Lesotho.

Lesotho Times reported “Farmers to Sign Contract with Tasty Food Packers” on 19 November 2022 about the ceremony of contract farming pilot organized at the premise of Tasty Food Packers. 

The Post published a video reportage “Contract Farming Launch” on 19 November 2022 on the capacity-building workshop organized in November that provided training on contract farming and discussed the preparation and launch of the contract farming pilot in Lesotho.

The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) published a piece of news on the validation workshop for the project jointly organized by FAO and MoAFSN on 17 June 2022, particularly for the validation workshops held in person in three regions. It highlights the presentation of the draft Contract Farming Bill, and the presentations on the value chain analysis and feasibility assessment for four value chains (dry beans, potatoes, broiler chicken and pork).

International media portal Africa Press dedicated a piece of news to the draft Contract Farming Bill in Lesotho on 23 April 2022. Public Eye Online is the Facebook social media channel for Public Eye News and shared a post with a video titled “Spotlight on Contract Farming Bill” on Facebook on 13 April 2022.

To learn more about the project, please feel free to check out the following news in our news section:

“A year in review and additions to CFRC”

“Piloting contract farming for dry beans in Lesotho”

“FAO supports the drafting of a Contract Farming Bill in Lesotho”

“Validation workshop for contract farming was held in Lesotho”

“Project inception: TCP project to build capacity and promote contract farming in Lesotho”

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