Parliament’s Economic and Development cluster committee says it is confident that the fruit farming pilot project of the Private Sector Competitiveness will bring to life the vision of commercial agriculture for Lesotho.

Members of the committee from different political parties took a tour of the project at Thuathe in Berea recently, to see the first grade apples produced on the farm.

The owner of the Thuathe farm, Blessing Nkhasi, told the committee that among others they now know that Lesotho apples can be harvested a month earlier than many other areas in southern Africa, giving the country early entry into international markets.

The project is co-funded by the World Bank and the government of Lesotho, and the committee oversees and monitors the disbursement of funds from the government to the project.

The infrastructure of netting, fencing and irrigation on the pilot farms is funded directly by the government.
The chairperson of the committee, and Member of Parliament for the Basotho Democratic National Party BDNP, Honourable Thabang Nyeoe, says he has no doubt Lesotho will be a force to reckon with, especially in the apple market, in the near future.

Mr. Nyeoe said he sees apple farming as the answer to Lesotho’s quest to participate in commercial agriculture and to increase its share of exports, to mitigate the decline in earnings such as SACU revenue.

He called on Basotho farmers to follow developments on the pilot projects with interest, and be the first to participate in commercial agriculture.

The pilot project has now compiled a ‘data book’ of best practices that will be used to train farmers during the roll out of the program.