The principal millers who import grain from South Africa report normal demand patterns in this pre harvest lean period. Other indicators support the view that there is sufficient and possibly expanding purchasing power in all but a few very specific social sectors to pay for food requirements. Expansion and diversification of income sources improves food security situation. A more detailed description of the changes taking place in purchasing power is included in the body of this report. Lesotho's food problems are not caused by drought or lack of water.
Water is the country's most important and abundant natural resource.
It is misleading to describe the country's agriculture as vulnerable to drought or shortage of rainfall. No meaningful strategy to increase food production could succeed in Lesotho without the commitment of significant resources to the strengthening of these institutional networks. The local and international NGO's operating in Lesotho could execute an emergency food distribution operation in the event of a major natural or man made disruption. With the apparent growth in purchasing power in the urban centers the need for a major intervention of this kind is unlikely. NGO's could also play a supporting role in the implementation of a strategy of transformation of the agricultural practices in the country but their effectiveness is limited by their lack of coordination and their individual agendas.