Overall targets
Lesotho Agriculture and Food Forum contributes to stable food production and economic growth through building social capital, agriculture partnerships and doing lobbying and advocacy
Immediate targets
1) By the end of 2019 the Lesotho Agriculture and Food Forum partnership is established and supports farmers voice doing lobbying and advocacy and having market access 2) By the end of 2021 smallholder farmers forums in each of the 10 districts and at national level are well organised and functioning 3) By the end of 2021, Lesotho Agriculture and Food Forum has negotiated with Lesotho Government and farmers have benefited from agriculture subsidy and market opportunities
Target groups
The primary target group is the smallholder farming community and their organisations in the 10 districts of Lesotho. This will be individual farming households, local smallholder farmer groups, district farmers forums together with civil society organisations engaging with farmers. All now to be represented around the same table – Lesotho Agriculture and Food Forum. The total number of households in Lesotho is 537,457 of which 224,664 are estimated to be farming households. 66% of the total population is living in rural areas (Denmark 45%, EU 28%). As an average of the total population 37% are female headed.
Resume
The overall vision of this project is smallholder farmers having political influence and ability to do viable agri-business in Lesotho. The outcome of the project will be a “Lesotho Agriculture and Food Forum” building smallholder farmers’ social capital alongside doing incisive lobbying and advocacy towards the Government of Lesotho for them to provide the necessary infrastructure and enabling environments in the rural areas of Lesotho. The lessons learned from previous DLN-RSDA-projects have led to the development of the project at hand, where the focus will be on partnerships at all levels. This project will be decentralising and at the same time densifying the role of RSDA as a leading initiator, coordinator, and facilitator. The project will organise farmers from all 10 districts of Lesotho and the number of farmers organised will increase from 5.000 to 10.000.