Threat of another poor harvest

A combination of bad weather and late deliveries of seeds and fertiliser could condemn Lesotho to another disastrous harvest this year, World Food Programme (WFP) officials said on Monday. The delayed arrival of seeds and farm inputs in 2002 meant that many farmers planted later than the traditional October/November period. A long dry spell was then followed by frost and hail storms in December, which damaged the crops in the field. "We're worried they [seeds] will not have time to germinate before the next harvest," WFP programme officer Veronica Sainte-Luce told IRIN. "It's a countrywide phenomenon. When you travel through Lesotho you can see the maize in many fields has been damaged by the frost and are brown." She said the area under cultivation had fallen even lower than last season's already reduced hectares. "[The food crisis] will be more serious than we faced last year, and definitely the number of beneficiaries will increase," WFP programme assistant Khauhelo Mojaki said. Some 445,000 people are estimated to be in need of food aid in Lesotho. WFP surpassed its target of feeding 315,200 of the most vulnerable rural people in seven out of the country's 10 districts, reaching a total of 387,464 since the beginning of food distribution in August. Deliveries were extended to an extra district in December.