Large agriculture surpluses do not equate to household food security
|Published
Crop farming in Lesotho has waned drastically, though household vegetable gardening continues unabated.
The winter of 1964 is on record as one when Lesotho witnessed the heaviest snow.
The summer season that followed that winter had a bumper harvest of wheat. At least in my village, the harvest lasted more than two seasons.
The land tenure system allowed the right to use land allocated on a permanent and hereditary basis, on condition of continuous use of such a piece of land.
Nominally, six acres was the average allocation per parcel of land and three such parcels were available to each household. A household could access greater acreage through share-cropping.
The household with cattle had the advantage of access to share-cropping. In this way, land was not often fallow and households were food sufficient and food secure.
In summer, migrant labourers would return to join families in work parties, mowing and threshing wheat. Sour sorghum porridge, bread and sorghum beer were treats of the season.
When by November the workload was heavy, those who could afford it had access to student labour, who would start by midday on designated days of the week.
The life of school, animal tendering and crop farming were always one. Children were neither excluded from school nor from the elements of life such as food production and processing.
Six years later, there were elections and these were accompanied by a state of emergency that was very disruptive to harmonious life in Lesotho.
Drought, which always presented itself at regular intervals, was afoot. Often when drought struck, livestock died and finding replenishment stock took long.
By the mid-Seventies, farm system support started shifting from draught animals to mechanised haulage. Tractors were used. I was one of those who worked as a government clerk, recording the acreage ploughed and processing claims for onward approval by higher order bureaucrats at head office in Maseru.
I witnessed first hand the shift from draught animals to mechanisation. I also witnessed a shortage of male labour. As a clerk, I had to be in the field, but being there meant I provided labour to load seed and fertiliser in the planter.
The assumption of the farmer support programme was that farmers will provide labour, but in most cases it was women, and the task, field after field, fell on me.
During harvest, the combine harvester was deployed. Modernisation was creeping in through mechanisation. When the farm support system through farmer-government share-cropping system failed, fields became fallow.
This also corresponded with the retrenchment of mine workers.
Basotho men and Xhosa men are known for their shaft work and dexterity in drilling. It is the skill that is deployed in deserted mines. The zama-zama is one of the results of the brutal migrant labour system.
While crop farming has declined and almost died in Lesotho, animal husbandry, especially cattle rearing, has qualitatively improved.
Improvements extend to small stock, including sheep and goats. The hardy Nguni breed of cattle that pulled the plough is replaced by the Brahman and Simmental breed. However, the decline is also accompanied by some limited replacement through hydroponics.
The Lesotho experience may provide important pointers on household-based farm practices, which are not necessarily different from those in rural areas of South Africa, where food security is not a problem, but stunting is. This suggests that the success of commercial agriculture that reflects surpluses does not equate to household food security.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of the Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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