By Matṧeliso Phulane
With the 2022/2023 summer cropping only a few weeks away, farmers are already bracing themselves for another round of poor harvests, similar to the one they experienced in the 2021/2022 season.
Last season was characterised by torrential and sometimes destructive rains associated with a weather condition known as La Nina, which were largely to blame for the poor crop and vegetable harvests.
The concerns of farmers only serve to endorse an announcement by the agriculture ministry earlier this year, which painted a gloomy picture of last year’s harvests.
In January this year, Mofihli Mošetšero of the department of crops predicted low crop production from last summer, warning that staple foods such as maize, sorghum and beans were among the crops that were likely to be more affected.
He said some farmers who started planting when the summer season began in early August to October could suffer poor harvests due to heavy downpours which had washed away soil nutrients, resulting in infertility.
“Too much rain with no sunlight prevents the veins of the crops to absorb nutrients from the soil, resulting in crops that either do not grow, or turn yellowish in colour. Crops also need sunlight to grow and when there is no sunlight it means those crops will not grow properly.
“Another issue is that since the rains came as early as October, by that time some people were still hoping the rains would stop and give them time to start putting seeds in the soil. The rains continued, resulting in waterlogged fields which made it hard for farmers to plant.
“All this suggests that we are going to fall short of food this summer season,” he warned.
His predictions turned out to be accurate. In an interview with theReporter this week, one of the farmers at Pela-Tṧoe in the Leribe district ‘Matheeko Sechaba said all their crops which include maize, sorghum and beans were affected by the heavy rainfall which stopped farmers from tending the crops; the lack of fertilisers did little to help their cause.
“In comparison to 2020/2021, we have had bad harvests due the heavy rainfall which began in summer last year. Our crops were submerged in water while some lands washed away by the rain.
“Strangely, even the production of beans which are usually able to withstand adverse weather, is also very low this year. This was aggravated by an outbreak of cutworms. As a result, we do not have much to sell because of the low quality of whatever we could salvage.
“A good number of farmers in this area encountered the problem of not getting fertilizer from the ministry of agriculture and food security. The little that was available was too expensive compared to previous years when we would purchase it at a subsidised price. In addition, the distribution of fertilizers was fraught with a lot of corruption which saw some farmers unduly procuring more amounts than others.
“A bag of fertilizer used to cost M130 but while this last year we had to fork out up to M245,” she said.
Sechaba indicated that they are due to start their summer cropping in mid-October depending on weather conditions. However, she added, they are not yet prepared since they are already being told by the community council and other media platforms that there is still going to be insufficient fertilizers from the suppliers this year.
Under the circumstance, the only course open to them is to apply farm manure, which they say is less desirable and effective in improving the quality of the soil.
Again, Sechaba said the farmers have been informed that the cost of hiring tractors will also go up due to fuel price increases, further increasing the burden of cultivating.
She appealed to government to negotiate with wholesalers and retailers to reduce the prices of mealie-meal, flour and other staple foods such as samp and rice to make them more affordable to the ordinary people.
One of the potato farmers, Sekila Molapo of Maseru, explained that on their side, the production is not that bad although it had declined in comparison to last year’s produce.
“Some farmers already began their harvest from the beginning of June, so farmers who encountered poor harvests are those who planted early before the heavy rainfall.
“Many of us planted end of January to February when there was less rainfall,’’ he said
Commenting on the matter, the senior agricultural information officer of the ministry of agriculture and food security, Lereko Masopha said the ministry “does not yet have statistics to confirm poor harvests as there are some farmers who have not yet harvested.”
But, he added, it was generally observed that there was a low harvest compared to previous years.
“Too much rainfall which occurred in the past season resulted in general failure of all crops, since too much soil water erodes nutrients.
“Besides that, farmers were not able to go to the fields for hoeing because of the rain, hence plants were stifled by weeds,” he observed.
Meanwhile, the Lesotho Meteorological Services’ public relations officer, Mokoena France, says the weather office is at the moment unable to predict with certainty whether there will be too much rainfall or drought the next summer.
He said such a weather forecast will only be available at the end of August.
