Thumbnail Image

Building Capacities and Facilitating Enabling Environment for Contract Farming in Lesotho - TCP/LES/3801

Year of publication 2024

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 11

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Project

Synopsis (short abstract) A vast majority of Lesotho’s population resides in rural areas and a large proportion of these rural dwellers depend on agriculture and remittances from migrant labourers for their livelihoods. Employment opportunities in South Africa and Lesotho’s urban centres have declined because of stagnating economic growth. The impact of COVID-19 has worsened the situation. Remittances as one of the key pillars for the rural economy have been seriously weakened. The focus is now shifting to agriculture to fill the void. Unfortunately, the performance and output of the agricultural sector has been disappointingly low, thus making those who depend on it vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity. These challenges notwithstanding, the Government of Lesotho considers agriculture as a priority sector for job creation and economic growth. The current medium-term planning framework (National Strategic Development Plan) has prioritized agriculture alongside manufacturing, tourism and creative industries as key growth generators and is advocating for increased public and private sector investment.

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Project
    Assistance on Resilience Building and Sustaining Livelihoods of Small Farmers in the Post-COVID-19 era in the Seychelles - TCP/SEY/3801 2025
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The sudden and severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the abrupt closure of borders at the end of March 2020, have significantly contracted the economy of the Seychelles. The collapse of the prime tourism industry, a major source of foreign exchange, and the discontinuation of imports for approximately 12 weeks have particularly set back the national agricultural sector. The closure of borders disrupted the importation of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, seeds, and plant protection products, which are predominantly secured through imports. Consequently, local supplies have dwindled, creating a situation that threatens the continuation of agricultural activities, thereby endangering the livelihoods and incomes of the 575 registered farmers and their families. Each farm typically employs three persons and sustains approximately five individuals from the farm family, meaning that around 4 500 people are directly impacted by these circumstances out of a total national population of 95 000. Furthermore, the decline in national agricultural production threatens the country’s food and nutrition security at a time when food imports are restricted, given that Seychelles imports 80 % by weight of the food it consumes. The assistance provided through this project aims to build resilience among farmers against the post-COVID challenges, ensuring continued local food supply and meeting the needs of the country by maximizing local capacity and capability.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Project
    Capacity Building to Access and Re-Invest REDD+ Results Proceeds towards Achieving PNG’s NDC - TCP/PNG/3801 2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Tackling climate change has long been at the forefront of Papua New Guinea’s national agenda, as evidenced by the country’s signing and ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( in 1992 and 1993 respectively, its signing and ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 1999 and 2002 and its participation in the process of drafting, adopting, ratifying and operationalizing the Paris Agreement In addition, Papua New Guinea has advocated for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries ( framework, submitting its Forest Reference Level in 2017 and including the results in its 2019 Biennial Update Report ( Reducing deforestation and promoting conservation as a means of bringing down emissions levels are critical to Papua New Guinea’s climate change mitigation agenda which is based on its Nationally Determined Contributions ( Funding is required for the country to achieve these goals, so this Technical Cooperation Programme ( project was formulated to build national capacities to access climate financing through a pilot programme of the Green Climate Fund ( that provides results based payments ( for emissions reductions In addition to building the capacities of the Climate Change and Development Authority ( the project aimed to develop a REDD+ RBP funding proposal to be submitted to the GCF for consideration.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Project
    Boosting Family Farming Capacities in Angola - UTF/ANG/069/ANG 2024
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The Agro-PRODESI project aimed to contribute to the Government of Angola’s goal of increasing domestic production by 25 percent by 2022, in particular by boosting the prioritized value chains and fostering links between key market players and small farmers along the selected economic growth corridors (EGCs) – hubs in which agribusiness takes place. The project was expected to ensure inclusive and sustainable partnerships, leveraged through the implementation of a national and territorial programme for agribusiness capacity-building and the development of agrifood value chains. This was to be achieved through three main outputs: (i) strengthened capacities of key actors at national and local levels on inclusive and sustainable agrifood value chains in EGCs, (ii) improved financial capacity of agribusiness actors (e.g. cooperatives and farmers’ associations) and incubators (youth and women) through training, mentoring, networking and knowledge exchange, (iii) accelerating the capacity of cooperative agro-entrepreneurs in Angola by strengthening INAPEM’s institutional capacity.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.