Food Aid, Food Production and Food Markets in Lesotho: An Analytical Review

Mukeere, Baker; Dradri, Simon

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1308499

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The production of the two substitute crops, sorghum (20% of cropped area) and wheat (10% of cropped area), also decreased by 42% and 4%, respectively, compared to 2006 14 , 15 , limiting the dietary substitution to alternative cereal crops. Although sorghum is a more drought tolerant crop 14 , 15 , 22 , farmers still decide to plant maize during dry years because of dietary preferences for maize and because markets for sorghum are less well developed 19 . On top of the production loss, the maize price in South Africa, which drives maize prices and hence purchasing power in Lesotho, increased by 41% compared to 2006 and 100% compared to 2005 (Fig.…”

Section: The 2007 Droughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lesotho has seen a large, nonlinear, trend in maize deficit over the last decades (Fig. 1g, black line), driven by increasing population, soil erosion, limited agricultural expansion (only 13% of the country is arable land), poor land-use practices, decreasing soil fertility, and the high number of HIV/AIDS infections that reduces the labour supply 14,[19][20][21] . This has increased the reliance on South Africa for maize imports to meet its national cereal requirement.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Climate change as a driver of food insecurity in the 2007 Lesotho-South Africa drought

Verschuur

Wolski

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Climate-induced food production shocks, like droughts, can cause food shortages and price spikes, leading to food insecurity. In 2007, a synchronous crop failure in Lesotho and South Africa—Lesotho’s sole trading partner—led to a period of severe food insecurity in Lesotho. Here, we use extreme event attribution to assess the role of climate change in exacerbating this drought, going on to evaluate sensitivity of synchronous crop failures to climate change and its implications for food security in Lesotho. Climate change was found to be a critical driver that led to the 2007 crisis in Lesotho, aggravating an ongoing decline in food production in the country. We show how a fragile agricultural system in combination with a large trade-dependency on a climatically connected trading partner can lead to a nonlinear response to climate change, which is essential information for building a climate-resilient food-supply system now and in the future.

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Section: The 2007 Droughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change as a driver of food insecurity in the 2007 Lesotho-South Africa drought

Verschuur

Wolski

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…As the cultivated area shrinks and the urban population grows, so have food imports from South Africa. Even though maize is the primary agricultural product in the country, domestically-produced unrefined maize is actually more expensive than imported refined maize from South Africa [18]. As Reference [19] observes "growing numbers of Basotho can achieve some or all of their food security by buying food rather than growing it."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Agriculture and Urban Food Insecurity in Maseru, Lesotho

Crush¹,

Frayne²,

McCordic³

2017

JFS

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Lesotho is facing continued and widespread food insecurity. In spite of a rapidly growing urban population, food security interventions and paradigms have primarily focused on bolstering food production within the country. This paper assesses the extent to which household engagement in urban agriculture in Maseru is associated with improved food security. Using household survey data, the paper argues that there is no consistent and statistically-significant relationship between urban agriculture practice and food security among Maseru households. Furthermore, some urban agriculture practices were only associated with significantly greater odds of food security for middle-income households in the sample. Given the that the observed benefits of urban agriculture appear to be conditional upon household income, this study suggests that a generalized production-centred approach to food insecurity may not be the most effective means of addressing household food security in Maseru.

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“…Critics of food aid argue that large amounts of food aid raise the aggregate food supply on domestic markets, depress domestic prices, and thereby create a disincentive to produce food locally. Resultant distortions in prices make it unprofitable for traders to move food from surplus to deficit areas, resulting in disincentives to domestic food production (Mukeere & Dradri, 2006).…”

Section: Food Aid In Malawimentioning

confidence: 99%

The dis-incentive effects of food aid and agricultural policies on local land allocation in developing countries: The case of Malawi

Sharaunga

Wale

2013

Development Southern Africa

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Food aid and other agricultural policies can create incentives/disincentives in local agricultural production. This paper provides empirical evidence on the disincentive effects of both food aid and some agricultural policies in Malawi. In contrast to previous studies, this paper analyses the impact of food aid on the proportion of land allocated to cereal crops and the interplay of both food aid and other agricultural policies in creating disincentive effects. Data were analysed using the logit transformation regression. It was found that, in addition to the disincentive effects of food aid, agricultural policies including price controls and sustained reliance on imported cereals were also undermining incentives to sustain local agricultural production. Therefore, both food aid and agricultural price policies need to be aligned to farmers' incentives to optimcally allocate land to food production.

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Food Aid, Food Production and Food Markets in Lesotho: An Analytical Review

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Climate change as a driver of food insecurity in the 2007 Lesotho-South Africa drought

Climate change as a driver of food insecurity in the 2007 Lesotho-South Africa drought

Urban Agriculture and Urban Food Insecurity in Maseru, Lesotho

The dis-incentive effects of food aid and agricultural policies on local land allocation in developing countries: The case of Malawi

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