Evaluation Of Lesotho Agricultural Input Subsidy Policy Based On Rural Households’ Food Security And Access To Inputs:Evidence From Mohale’s Hoek District

Lesotho like other countries in the African continent still faces challenges of hunger and poverty, a high percentage of Lesotho’s population still lives in poverty, and food security is a national concern.The prevalence of poverty in Lesotho is a pressing issue and brings GoL efforts to fight poverty through AISP into disrepute and the relevance of Lesotho’s AISP in terms of rural households’ food security and welfare is questionable. In that regard, this study attempts to provide the insights regarding Lesotho’s AISP position in terms of rural households’ food security and welfare by establishing or identify the determinants of farmers’ access to inputs via the government. The second part incorporates the use of subsidized inputs and measure the impact of the government input subsidy program on food security. The motive behind the study is to advocate GoL fight again poverty by investigating factors pre-empting success of Lesotho’s AISP. The Combination of econometric approaches was applied to a selected sample of rural households actively engaged in maize production, and the findings revealed the determinants of farmers’ access to inputs as being cropland allocation, type of fertilizer and agro-ecological conditions.The vast majority of rural households doesn’t receive or get subsidized inputs and out of that small portion of the recipients, half of them don’t use their inputs (chemical fertilizers).This phenomenon is due to the fact that, rural households may not be in a position to use their inputs because of late delivery, or to use optimally because they do not perceive the benefits.