Blessing Nkhasi is a 33 year old farmer from Thuathe in Berea. Although not school-educated in Agriculture, Blessing grew up in a farming home, and his life revolves around peach and other fruit trees. Diagnosing the health of a tree is like second nature to him. He carries his shears like some do their cellphones, and stops your conversation midway just to clip away.

His biggest disappointment, which has made him stop taking driving lessons, is that he has to put off his plan to buy a bakkie year because although the trees are only flowering now, he already knows that the extreme winter cold is sure to affect his harvest adversely.

This because like every other farmer in Lesotho, Blessing does not have the money or expertise to protect his crops with fancy gadgets like the farmers in South Africa or other developed countries.

Well, all that is about to change for Blessing. He is one of three farmers earmarked by the Ministry of Agriculture to be part of a Horticulture pilot project under the Private Sector Competitiveness (PSC) Project.

The objective of the project is to increase private sector participation in the economy by increasing its productivity and competitiveness, and hence its ability to compete. It is envisioned that this goal will be achieved through improving the business environment and reducing the cost of doing business; strengthening the linkages with the regional economy, especially South Africa; strengthening institutional support for employable skills and business management; and improving productivity at the firm level.

Blessing and two other farmers from Mahobong and Qoqolosing in the north of Lesotho have planted a total of five thousand Apple and Cherry trees, and their orchards will have proper irrigation, be protected with nets and fencing from hail and birds, animals and prying hands.

The project has supplied over three thousand other trees, and will provide expert support, though without netting and fencing to other farmers in Quthing and Rothe.

The focus of activities under the horticulture component will be to add more value to products grown in Lesotho, and to link them to markets in South Africa, and the EU. This initiative will be done through: (i) Improving quality, volume and delivery capability of Basotho farmers; (ii) Growing away from smallholder farming and encouraging group or block farming initiatives, hence the adoption of horticulture commercial block-farming; and (iii) Production of organic products to help tap into high premium niche markets, both local and abroad.

These objectives will be met through partnerships with large scale South African
Farming, processing and marketing companies, such as Alpha Estates and Denmar Estates, who have already come on board to work with the pilot phase.

Denmar estates have substantial knowledge and experience in the production of fruit at a large scale for commercial purposes, and through demonstrations like Blessing’s, Alpha and Denmar will bring their technical, management and market expertise, including access to its marketing network, to help establish the pilot in Lesotho. The pilot will not only provide local farmers with the adoption of appropriate and necessary farming methods, but also provide them with a reputable market base, necessary to draw the desired farm income.

Due to the large size of these projects, Blessing had to acquire more farming land. Here the project has a component called Livelihood support, through which the farmers are able to support the landowners who gave up their land, and had to forfeit their produce. It provides food to the owners of the additional land that Blessing and the other farmers needed, and this will continue until Blessing is able to pay for rental of the land from selling his produce.

It is envisaged that the Ministry of Agriculture will then provide support to upscale these pilot projects countrywide, in areas where suitable conditions exist.

Blessing is very upbeat about his project, and all that he wishes for now is that the netting could have come earlier to save his peaches and bring his bakkie home where it belongs.