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May 3, 2019

3 min read

Farmers urged to plant winter crops

Farmers urged to plant winter crops

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STAFF REPORTER The senior crop officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Sekhonyane Mahase has appealed to the farmers to take advantage of the existing moisture to plant winter crops. Most farmers have failed to till their lands last year because of the devastating drought that rocked the country. This means hunger is now looming because nothing will be harvested in winter this year. But if the farmers could hurry up to plant the winter crops, the impending hunger could somehow be circumvented. Mahase said the government has subsidised the winter cropping inputs with 50%. He said these inputs include peas, wheat, fodder crops, vegetable seeds and fertilisers. And the seeds are available in Maseru only while the fertilisers are found in other districts like Leribe, Butha-Buthe and Mohale’s hoek. He said his ministry also helps individual farmers from the districts with subsidies if they have a letter from their supervisors that they are dedicated farmers. Mahase said they have failed to distribute the farming inputs to all districts because of the budget deficit to do so. “We will not have resources to distribute and monitor those farming inputs in all the districts,” he said. Lesotho has in the past experienced how the animals died because of hunger as they did not have fodder supplements in winters. It is for this reason that Mahase has asked the farmers to also plant fodder crops so that they could save their animals in winter against hunger. There will be no maize or sorghum stalks for animals this winter and the animals are facing starvation. Animals are used by most farmers in the rural and highland areas as a source of draught power to till their lands. The spokesman of the Lesotho National Union of Farmers (Lenafu) Taoana Lephoto said he has already visited the districts to see what the farmers are doing on the ground. “We are lobbying farmers to take advantage of this moisture. If we do not plant now we could surely face starvation,” Lephoto said. He said the farmers are eager to plant the winter crops. He said the farming inputs are readily available at Foso’s government warehouse. Lephoto said they are planning to plant wheat on a large scale because it could somehow substitute maize and wheat that they failed to plant last year. “Some fields have already been ploughed. Now as we speak I am on my way from Ha Foso to buy the farming inputs, “he said. He said they are also planning to plant various types of peas which have a market at the World Food Programme (WFP) Lesotho. He said WFP has since asked farmers to supply them with peas and beans. Lephoto said they have to work hard to keep their hunger at bay. Lesotho Meteorological Services in a statement released last week said moderate to heavy snow is anticipated over the highlands with widespread and heavy rains. Snow for farmers signals that there would be moisture that would allow farmers to till their lands without any hindrance and also projects bumper harvests for the farmers. Mahase said vegetable farmers should also move hastily to buy seeds so that they should also be cushioned from hunger this season. He said this is an opportunity too good to be wasted by the vegetable farmers.

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