Lesotho - Farming is Tough

St. Camillus Farm - Meeting Lots of Challenges

In spite of the fabulous early days of huge cabbages & initial sales, we quickly found that finding & sustaining a market were extremely challenging. One large market, the Catholic schools in the neighborhoods near St. Camillus, was totally unavailable due to the 3 month summer holiday. Though Thabang had assured us vendors would come from the north & south districts (Maseru to Quithing) & throughout Mohale's Hoek, we did not experience the big sales that we had anticipated. Rethabile & I created flyers & walked from market to market & street vendor to street vendor promoting the farm. We showed photos of the large "farm fresh" cabbages & green peppers & discussed price. We promoted the concept of buying locally, Lesotho produce, rather than imports from South Africa. But, vendors wanted St. Camillus to bring the veggies to them in town.  Our competitors were doing just that - setting up stations where the town vendors could just walk over & pick up their stock from trucks that would come a couple times a week.  Street vendors & many markets rely on walking to the trucks. With no refrigeration on the street & most markets, it is extremely difficult to keep fresh veggies fresh for more than a couple days - so a steady supply of smaller quantities is preferred over large loads. Finding the right sale price was a challenge too. Our initial sale price was based on what we thought the standard price was but that was always a moving target. We were having big trouble gaining a loyal client base. 


Abundant, beautiful green peppers

Ausi Rethabile & Mme Maletuka discussing sales



The irrigation, though a miracle of readily available water, was a challenging new concept for Ntate Komitse, the farm hand responsible for managing the sprinklers. Watering after a rain, watering on windy days, watering during the heat of the day; numerous conceptual issues. Managing the pests was another; the outer cabbage leaves were becoming riddled with pest holes.  Huge volunteer squash & sunflower plants as well as weeds were invading the green pepper field. The volunteer plants were thought to be welcome additions to the harvest as the farm workers were new to commercial farming & did not appreciate the negative impact of this overgrowth. Ntate Thabang, our Conservation Agriculture consultant, was dismayed & counselled Sr. Juliana & the farm workers but they were slow or resistant to adopting new behaviors.  The huge cabbages early in the season were now gone & vendors would tell us the remaining crop was unsuitable for their stalls & shops.

The new 60 meter borehole ensures the whole farm can be irrigated

Bridging the transportation gap became a huge issue as well. After the accident, the truck had mechanical issues. Though Sr. Juliana began to take veggies to the villages to sell, it was not long before the truck needed serious repairs & was out for repairs. We soon found out the truck needed an engine overhaul & would be left at the Toyota service department for weeks. Sr. Juliana & Mme Maletuka would push a wheelbarrow full of green peppers, or carry a basin full on her head, the 2 km into town - they were becoming exhausted. 

Mme Maletuka carries the peppers 1.5 miles into town to sell - we need transportation!

Sales plummeted. Rethabile & I crunched the numbers & found that we had only sold 12% of the projected cabbage harvest as the season was nearing its conclusion.

Time to face the challenges & learn some critical lessons about commercial farming

  1. But can we considering these cultural, environmental, & socio-economic norms
  2. Removing barriers to innovation, re-tooling, efficiencies, success through failure
  3. Unlearning behaviors that were essential for subsistence gardening & reliance on rain to embrace conservation agriculture with its managed crop rotation
  4. Adopting supply & demand & for-profit marketing & sales methodologies in order to shift away from practices associated with a life of poverty
  5. Releasing the fear of spending money to make practical decisions about hiring labor, purchasing tools, getting produce to market
  6. Confronting & then managing staff performance issues or replacing staff when training proves ineffective

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The greenhouse will ensure crops during the cold winter

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