Strengthening Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture: Experience and Lessons from Lesotho

In many parts of southern Africa, agricultural production is stagnant or even in decline, particularly in subsistence and smallholder agriculture. The reasons are many and debatable, but include lack of suitable inputs for production, environmental constraints and degradation, inadequate agricultural infrastructure, external shocks including volatile markets, and social stresses such as the impacts of HIV/AIDS and growing poverty. As an additional stressor, increasing climate variability and climate change are impacting on agricultural livelihoods since resource-poor farmers are unable to cope with multiple stressors or adapt to climate-related risks. The Kingdom of Lesotho is a typical example of a country considered highly vulnerable to climate-related challenges: as one of the least developed countries (LDCs), it is over-reliant on rainfed agriculture for food production and has a large poor rural population engaged in subsistence farming, which is relatively undiversified.