Most farming at subsistence level is located in rural areas where the majority of smallholder farmers have low productivity which results in high rate of food insecurity. The areas are characterised by animal traction and poor farming practises, and monoculture is mostly preferred. In light of this, this study analyzed the impact of animal power on agricultural productivity. Smallholder farmers in the lowlands of Mohale’s Hoek district of Lesotho were investigated by means of a case study methodology. The aim of the study was to inform agricultural policy about the level and key determinants of inefficiency in the smallholder farming system so as to contribute to policy designed to raise productivity of smallholder farmers. The sampling frame comprised farmers and extension workers in the lowlands of Mohale’s Hoek district. From this frame, 118 farmers and 4 extension workers were randomly selected from four villages, namely‘Mapotsane, Potsane, Tsoloane and Siloe. The four groups of farmers include; the farmers owning and using cattle for ploughing, farmers owning tractor and cattle and using them for ploughing, farmers owning tractor only and using it for ploughing, and farmers who owned neither cattle nor tractor and normally hire these when ploughing operations are to be done on the farm. The interviews of these farmers and extension workers were conducted by means of semi-structured questionnaire which consisted of both open and close ended questions. The study used the stochastic frontier production model for the production efficiencies and linear regression model for the impact of animal traction on agricultural productivity. Both procedures provided insights into the relative contributions of animal power and traditional systems to poverty alleviation and food security in the project areas. Descriptive statistics were employed for farming systems and challenges facing small scale farmers. Gross Margins analysis was conducted for the animal power and tractor power yield levels for maize crop to compare the two types of power. Some diagnostic tests to detect serial correlation and heteroskedasticity and t-tests were also performed. The significant variables include the area of sorghum ploughed, members of the household that assist with family labour, education, quantity of fertilizer applied, time taken by the farmers in farming, members who are formally employed, household size, area of land ploughed, old age, costs of tractor and animal, marital status, income, area of maize ploughed, area of sorghum ploughed, quantity of fertilizers applied, costs of seeds and fertilizers applied, maize and sorghum yield and amount sold and consumed. The study revealed that monoculture is mainly practised and many smallholder farmers used traditional technologies that fail to replace nutrients in the soil. Nonetheless family labour was not a problem. During the farming season, tractors were used as the main source of power for ploughing. Most farmers hired these for maize production as it is a staple food crop even where animal power is available. It was noted that the tractors were few and in most cases old and malfunctioning. The cost of using animals in farming obviouslyplayed a role in the production of both maize v and sorghum in the lowland areas of Mohale’s Hoek district. Smallholder farmers who owned both tractors and animals produced more but they were mainly affected by high costs of maintaining the aging tractors, generally purchased on the used-equipment market. The increased challenges resulted in lower productivity of the smallholder farmers, including: unhealthy animals, drought, marketing problems, late ploughing, poor soils, lack of extension services, low yields, low income, lack of information, lack of appropriate implements, lack of support services, nutrition inadequacy, inappropriate farming systems. The study recommended the adoption and promotion of low-cost mechanization in the lowlands of Mohale’s Hoek district so as to increase the production of the smallholder farmers. Increased productivity will in turn improve household food security.

Lesotho has a land area of about 30.340 square kilometers and is completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Much of the country is mountainous. Its agricultural sector is characterized by low productivity due to erratic climatic conditions, limited arable land and fragile soils with a low water holding capacity. These conditions have proved very detrimental to crop production, rendering agriculture a risky economic activity. Numerous efforts have been made over the years to address the technical constraints confronting the sector, but nothing seems to be changing. The implication is that the technical/climatic factors mentioned above may be only part of the problem. The current situation whereby Lesotho imports nearly 95% of its domestic food requirements is unsustainable, but this desperate picture looks set to worsen with the continuing threats of contracting farm sizes and further declines in farmer participation rates. But this sector has continued to be an important source of household survival and existence. A study was designed and conducted during 2008 and 2009 to identify the institutional constraints to horticulture production in Lesotho, looking specifically at the obstacles to effective production and marketing of horticultural products. A total of 100 farming households were enumerated in four districts of the country, namely Butha Buthe, Berea, Mafeteng, and Thaba-Tseka. A range of institutional and non-price factors in the farming and marketing environment were incorporated in a binary choice model to investigate the degree of satisfaction of the farming households with their previous year’s farming results. To avoid selection bias in the sample, a probit model was chosen, and the Stata-10 software was used to estimate probit coefficients. The results provide indications that property rights, the agricultural extension service, the condition of the physical infrastructure, and distance to markets may be crucial elements threatening the existence of this sector in Lesotho. The difficulties in accessing markets and land remain important institutional constraints to horticulture production and marketing in Lesotho. Recommendations made on these issues include providing more policy support to homestead gardening and for these issues to be incorporated into the Vision 2020 process. Also to be included is the issue of addressing the growing national food insecurity and enhancing Basotho livelihoods in general.