Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7432972.stm

 Lesotho gardens relieve food crisis

As delegates at the UN food summit in Rome tackle concerns over food 
production, the BBC's Peter Greste visits Lesotho, one of the countries most 
at risk from climate change and global food and fuel price rises.

Lesotho's vast highland plains are spectacular places for tourists. Broad and 
treeless, they offer stunning views of the mountains looming over shimmering 
gold grasslands.

But they are terrible for farmers.

Decades of intensive agriculture have stripped the land of trees, and exposed 
soils to wind and rain.

Erosion has created countless miniature canyons that split the plains 
everywhere you look. The already thin mountain soils have lost virtually all 
their productive nutrients.

According to the Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Efraim 
Lehata, a typical farmer in Lesotho's maize belt would be lucky to squeeze 
half a tonne of grain from each acre of land.

They should be able to produce more than 14 times that.

Global forces

The minister bemoans the fact that his country, which used to do well out of 
farm exports to neighbouring South Africa, now depends on food handouts from 
organisations like the World Food Programme.

He admits that a lot of the blame rests with the country itself. But with a 
population of about two million, tiny Lesotho is barely the size of Belgium.

The forces now shaping global food prices are way beyond its control.


"The last summer season, most of our tractors couldn't go to the fields 
because of the cost of diesel. Now that the price has doubled, we're not 
expecting any to be able to go," Mr Lehata said. "It is very difficult."

In many respects, Lesotho is a microcosm of the problems facing so many parts 
of the developing world.

The mountain kingdom in southern Africa sits on a plateau mostly above 1,800 
metres altitude, so the growing season is short and its vulnerability to 
climate change is acute.

With the country struggling with one of the world's highest HIV prevalence 
rates, many of its able-bodied workers have either died or been crippled by 
disease.

And in what is one of the poorest states in Africa, even the slightest 
increase in the cost of food or commodities hits painfully hard.

Keyhole gardens

But Lesotho cannot wait for the UN food summit in Rome to come up with ideas, 
so it has developed some of its own.

        (Mahaha's family) has three keyhole gardens and that's more than 
enough to supply all 10 of them with all the vegetables they need, and with 
some left over to sell - it's changed their lives
Ntsie Tlali, Care
Mahaha Mphou does not know much about global economics, but she does know how 
to grow vegetables.

She and the rest of her family of 10 have become some of the most 
enthusiastic evangelists for a home-grown idea that has almost certainly 
saved them from starvation.

They are now thriving on what have become known as "keyhole gardens". They 
are round gardens of about two metres in diameter and raised to waist-height 
to make them easy for the sick and elderly to work.

Inside, the garden-beds are layered with tin cans, mulch and ash which 
together provide the nutrients to make the gardens extraordinarily productive.

Ntsie Tlali from Care, the non-governmental organisation behind the gardens, 
believes they are revolutionary.

"As you can see, (Mahaha's family) has three keyhole gardens and that's more 
than enough to supply all 10 of them with all the vegetables they need, and 
with some left over to sell. It's changed their lives."

Because they are protected by the stonework, the rich soils are safe from 
erosion.

They retain moisture far more effectively than land farmed by traditional 
farming methods, and they are compact enough to turn the tiniest plot of land 
into productive agriculture.

'Food is life'

Mahaha says they have also transformed the family's diet: "We're growing so 
many things, from beetroot to spinach, onions, tomatoes, carrots - 
everything."

Mr Lehata acknowledged that the gardens alone will not transform Lesotho, 
"but we've been really surprised by just how well they've worked," he said.

"We expected them to disappear after half a season, but you can see that 
although we have such cold winters, they are productive all year round. It's 
been really helpful to our people."

Even so, the one thing the minister wants from the Rome summit is urgent 
action on the cost of basic farm supplies like fuel, seed and fertiliser.

"Food is life," he said. "If we can't afford that, we're finished."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7432972.stm

Published: 2008/06/03 12:01:27 GMT