As you drive along the tar road heading south from the capital of Lesotho, Maseru you can’t help but notice the beautiful landscape, the friendly Basotho people and the herd boys tending their animals. Travelling further south and east you pass through the bustling towns of Mafeteng and Mohale’s Hoek before the scenery changes and you cross the mighty Senqu (Orange) River and head east along its valley into the mountains.

Throughout the journey though one thing hits home. In March, early autumn, the maize and sorghum should be standing tall in the fields but everywhere the crops look stunted and withered. In some places crops are smothered by weeds, in others vast areas remain fallow whilst in yet more the soil has been washed away by erosion. What you are actually seeing are the effects of many years of poor farming practices which have resulted in over 20% of the country’s population being reliant on food aid from agencies such as the UN World Food Programme.

You would be wrong however. After a short distance the road plunges down into a small gorge, crosses a river and climbs up the other side. It is here, once you have negotiated your way up the steep climb, that you notice a difference.

Sebapala is home to LEC pastor Rev. Motipi Ranthimo and his family and he explains why the crop here is so different to what we have seen on our long journey through Lesotho.

Rev. Ranthimo took us round his fields and explained that he first met August Basson at a Presbytery meeting in 1999 when he was pastor of the church at Tsoelike, higher up the Senqu River valley, not far from Tebellong where August was based.

3 years later August had learnt about Conservation Agriculture (CA) and had started to tell people about it. One of the first people he taught was Rev. Ranthimo and it was at this point that he started to practice CA. Shortly after seeing how good the results were he began to teach others in the Tsoelike area about it.

When he was moved to the parish of Sebapala by the LEC in 2008 Rev. Ranthimo started farming the land there using those same CA methods. The people in the village thought he was crazy. How could he possibly grow crops without ploughing the land? Those same people have however been amazed by the results and some people have even started adopting the methods with his tuition.

Rev. Ranthimo explained that Farming God’s Way teaches how to farm using CA methods, without ploughing or turning over the soil. Planting is carried out either by digging small holes by hand, placing fertiliser and seeds in them before covering them up with soil and organic matter, or by using animal or tractor drawn planters. Farming in this way helps to minimise soil disturbance, whilst nutrients and organic matter build up over time producing healthier crops, higher yields and the soil is protected from erosion.

The fields at Sebapala are planted using a home-made horse drawn no-till planter which allows planting with minimal disruption to the soil, a key part of CA farming methods.

“It isn’t always easy. Drought and bird damage have reduced the yield this year, and the experimental areas planted without fertiliser have not done particularly well, but I will still have plenty to feed my family and a surplus to sell for a profit”.

Admiring the view over the Sebapala Valley Rev. Ranthimo told us how he was looking forward to the future, planning how to cultivate more of his land and is also actively involved in teaching Farming God’s Way CA methods to other pastors and farmers within his community.

He said,

“It has changed my life. I am responsible for many outlying villages and churches in the Valley and it enables me to travel between them in a fraction of the time it took me to ride my horse”...

...“The horse now helps me plant my fields more quickly, earning its keep in planting season pulling the horse drawn planter!”

© Barry Mann 2010