LESOTHO: Mathabang Letsoara, "We have less than half a sack of maize to live on"

HA TSIU Tuesday, September 16, 2008 (IRIN) - Mathabang Letsoara, in her early twenties, lives with her family of six in Ha Tsiu, a village 100km east of Maseru, capital of Lesotho. Food production in their village has fallen steadily. "We have less than half a sack of maize to live on," she says. Letsoara points to a sack of maize, no higher than her knee, stored in a corner of their mud-and-stone house. It is at least another eight months to the next harvest. Food prices have also gone up. The...