What are the reasons for the poor performance of horticultural products in Lesotho despite growing demand for the products worldwide and in the country? Are there important non-price factors that we should take into account in deciding on appropriate policies for revitalizing the farm sector in a country where few alternative opportunities for employment exist? These were some of the questions this chapter set out to address by examining production and marketing decisions and results in four of Lesotho’s ten districts during 2009. Why is the country’s agricultural sector not rising to the occasion to meet the needs of the growing urban population? The preamble and foreword to the Vision 2020 document tried to address this question but they remain inconclusive. At the same time, Lesotho’s population, especially those residing in the lone modern metropolis, Maseru, continues to be more sophisticated, with consumption patterns that are comparable to those in other modern economies. But even that limited role is threatened as farm sizes and participation rates contract even further in the face of a multitude of factors. While Lesotho’s agriculture stopped being a source of government revenue more than a century ago, it still fulfilled important household subsistence needs.
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