Project Detail

Ha Rat?oleli beekeeping and water harvesting for improved horticultural production project

Rat?oleli Farmers Association is a Community Based Organization of 10 members (6 men and 4 women). The organization was registered with the Law Office in Lesotho in 2012 (registration number 2012/184). All members of the Association sit in a committee and run the Association as a collective. Thus, all members are involved in the decision-making processes and implement activities they all have agreed upon. The organization is based at the village of Ha Rat?oleli, a resident community to the Principal Chief of Qacha?s Nek.

The main objective of this organization is to conserve biodiversity in order to support healthy ecosystems that in turn support livelihoods of the community of Ha Rat?oleli. The Farmers Association plans to achieve this goal through implementation of activities that support environmental management and also promote household food security through production of horticultural crops and beekeeping. The association has been allocated land by the Principal Chief and intends to use the land to practice climate smart agriculture in view of the changing climate.
Biodiversity loss is a major cause for concern as it signifies unhealthy ecosystems and weakened functioning thereof. The most significant challenge for most communities becomes food insecurity as a result of declining agricultural output and thus increasing vulnerability of most families.
Members of Rat?oleli Farmers Association have recognized the connection between biodiversity conservation and food security among others and as a result are proposing a project that will address the challenges brought about biodiversity loss as well as food insecurity for the community of Ha Ratsoleli. The proposed project therefore combines conservation of the natural landscape that will directly support production of horticultural crops and honey mainly to address household food insecurity while at the same time generating income for the members of the Association. The project is also envisaged to contribute to employment particularly for the youth in the community of Ratsoleli.

Primary objective: The primary objective of the proposed project is to improve the environment and livelihoods resilience of the community of Ha Rat?oleli through horticultural crops and beekeeping projects.

Specific Objective 1: To create awareness and engage the community of Ha Rat?oleli in activities that promote biodiversity conservation.

Specific Objective 2: To sustainably harvest water for production of irrigated horticultural crops.

Specific Objective 3: To produce horticultural crops and honey for the purpose of household food security and income generation.

Specific objective 4: To build the capacity of Rat?oleli Farmers Association to effectively manage the Association and the enterprise.

Expected Results

Improved environment and livelihoods resilience of the community of Ha Rat?oleli

Ha Rat?oleli Community aware of the consequences of biodiversity loss and participate in activities that promote biodiversity conservation.

Water harvested and utilized for irrigated horticultural crops production.

Increased incomes of farming households through production of horticultural crops and honey

Effective and better managed farmers Association equipped with organizational and enterprise management skills.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Rat?oleli Farmers Association

Country:

Lesotho

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity
Climate Change Mitigation
Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

OP7 - Y1 (Jul 20-Jun 21)

Grant Amount:

US$ 30,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 31,000.00

Project Number:

LSO/SGP/OP7/Y1/CORE/BD/2021/07

Start Date:

5/2021

End Date:

4/2023

Status:

Project activities completed, final reports pending

Project Characteristics and Results

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

All consultations and awareness campaigns leading to the development of the project proposal were conducted in the local language.

Capacity - Building Component

Among the identified training needs to address observed capacity needs are training in: Organizational management including reporting and conflict resolution. Beekeeping and value addition to produce and products. Marketing management Horticulture and irrigation., among others.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Envisaged income generation activities include, but are not limited to, vegetable production under protected and irrigated farming and open field crops production to take advantage of the localized warmer climate favoring early planting and earlier harvesting thereby creating easier access to local market, Beekeeping to take advantage of vast forage of natural vegetation found in the project site and also to boost horticultural production.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Knowledge, lessons learned, and good practices will be shared through the community radio station in Qacha?s Nek. In addition to that, the Association with the support of relevant line ministries will organize a field day towards the end of the project and annually thereafter, to showcase the achievements on the one hand and market the produce and products on the other. Being a combination of environmental management and agricultural project, the field days will be a good platform to create awareness and educate communities that maintaining the balance in nature is important and in particular the provisioning function of the ecosystems come as a result of a buffer created from interconnectedness of these systems in nature.

Gender Focus

Rat?oleli Farmers Association membership consists of 4 women translating to 40% of total membership. Two of the women hold the positions of a Chairperson and Secretary, respectively. This therefore renders the Association responsive to the roles of women in leadership. Furthermore implementation of the project will be sensitive to labor division between women and men as well as people with disabilities. Even though the youth have not been seen to be taking interest in the joining the association, the plan is that through this project, the youth will be mentored into taking over the activities in future. The plan is to kick-start the activities and mentor and prepare the youth to take over from their parents. This is envisaged to create jobs for youth in the community and avoid the problem of youth migrating to urban areas and neighboring country in search of job opportunities that usually brings a range of negative social impacts especially with regard to the females who are more vulnerable.

Notable Community Participation

Rat?oleli Farmers Association membership consists of 4 women translating to 40% of total membership. Two of the women hold the positions of a Chairperson and Secretary, respectively. This therefore renders the Association responsive to the roles of women in leadership. Furthermore, implementation of the project will be sensitive to labor division between women and men as well as people with disabilities. Even though the youth have not been seen to be taking interest in the joining the association, the plan is that through this project, the youth will be mentored into taking over the activities in future. The plan is to kick-start the activities and mentor and prepare the youth to take over from their parents. This is envisaged to create jobs for youth in the community and avoid the problem of youth migrating to urban areas and neighboring country in search of job opportunities that usually brings a range of negative social impacts especially with regard to the females who are more vulnerable.

Policy Impact

Rat?oleli Farmers Association propose to practice climate smart agriculture while at the same time working with the community to protect the environment that is essential in the long-term success of the project. In particular, the project combines education on the linkage between environment management and livelihoods, which normally is overlooked in similar small scale projects. Therefore, the project will be a practical demonstration of the benefits of environmental restoration in supporting food security and income generation. This will be achieved through engagement of the communities in environment restoration and management activities while at the same time Rat?oleli Farmers Association embraces the concept of Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) for environment and social safeguard at this very small scale. The grant will therefore be used to achieve both conservation and food security objectives as well as educating the community about the interface between climate change, livelihoods and the environment.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The initial stakeholder engagement meetings will be followed by a public gathering to create awareness of the project to the community of Ha Rat?oleli. The plan going forward and as the project grows, is for the Association to create jobs to the community of Ha Rat?oleli and giving them first priority where additional labor is required, targeting mostly the youth. This will enhance participation and earn support to the project.

+ View more

Back to search results

Countries

Regions

Project Snapshot

SGP Country office contact

Address

Country Website