Briefs
/ Project highlights
Building resilience to drought in Lesotho
Nearly 75 percent of Lesotho’s population live in rural areas and depend on farming for their livelihoods. The proportion of people living below the poverty line is increasing, and arable land is extremely limited (9 percent of the total area). When the El Niño-induced drought struck in 2015, the agricultural sector was strongly impacted, and the Government of Lesotho declared a state of drought emergency. Many households did not plant at all, leading to a drastic decline in food availability and harvest.
In partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) and the Bureau of Statistics, this project provided urgently needed resources to initiate support for the most vulnerable households in the country. This project aimed to enhance resilience, rebuild agricultural capacities and support the production of short-cycle vegetables and staple crops, thereby increasing food availability and diversity for those most negatively affected by the drought.
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