Lesotho Needs $14 Million to Buy Food for Almost 500,000 People

(Bloomberg) -- Lesotho needs 203.73 million maloti ($14 million) for food aid for almost half a million people.

The southern African nation’s government needs money to buy 25,255 tons of grain, Temeki Ts’olo, the minister in the prime minister’s office, said Thursday in a statement read on the national broadcaster, Radio Lesotho.

Crop production in the mountainous country that’s surrounded by South Africa declined by 21 percent and the sale of livestock products dropped by 70 percent due to drought, Ts’olo said. The number of people who will need food will increase to about 640,000 from July until June next year unless production is boosted by intensive agriculture practices, he said.

Dry conditions have affected several sub-Saharan African countries in recent years, leaving livestock farmers in central parts of South Africa in need of aid to feed their animals and continue operating and also pushing up food inflation in nations such as Kenya.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mathabiso Ralengau in Johannesburg at mralengau@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Ana Monteiro

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