IT is harvest time in Ha Lejone, a small village nestling in mountains of Lesotho, more than 2 000metres above sea level.

The yield is not grain or fruit, but rainbow trout -- the bounty from an undulating river at the foot of the peaks of Lesotho.

Fishermen haul nets bulging with trout onto a floating platform. The fish are killed and put on ice, the first step on their journey to dinner tables in the neighbouring South Africa.

The settlement is home to one of Lesotho's two professional fish farms, pioneering ventures in the country. Stephen Phakisi, 59, launched Katse Fish Farms with two partners in 2005.

Today, he chuckles at how the trio leapt into the business with meagre knowledge about some of its unknowns, including the best feed for fattening fish quickly.

"For five years, it was totally uneconomical," Phakisi says.

After a difficult start, the fish farm now produces around 800 tonnes of trout annually, mainly for export to South Africa.  

Phakisi recalls how he once found a shoal of fish dead and belly-up in the water, while another time a full cargo of imported fingerlings died on a 16-hour drive from Cape Town.

Today, the company is profitable, with a yearly output of 800 tonnes of fish, which is sold at about $4 a kilogram.

It supplies a few local restaurants, where the trout is usually pan-fried in butter for a few minutes and served with a side dish of kale and potato chips or rice.

But the bulk of its production lands on the shelves of high-end supermarkets in SA, where a vacuum-packed one-kilo bag can cost up to $50.

Trout farming in Lesotho has grown on the back of another of the country's most famous exports - water.

South Africa gets much of its water from its neighbour, which has dammed several of its waterways over the past three decades.

The dams have widened riverbeds, creating inlets and basins that are ideal for trout farming.

Katse Fish Farms lies more than 2 000 metres (6 500 feet) above sea level on the Malibamatšo River, upstream from the giant Katse Dam reservoir that supplies South Africa's capital Pretoria and the largest city, Johannesburg.

Fish farming currently accounts for less than 0.1 percent of Lesotho's $2 billion GDP. Locals say they have always eaten salted, sun-dried freshwater fish. And young boys sell the fresh catch to passing motorists.

But as dam construction continues the country has the potential "to become the regional leader in aquaculture," according to the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC).

In this country of just over two million people, who rank among the poorest in the world, few seem to be benefiting so far from the water boom.