A NEW YEAR, A NEW SEASON : WELCOME

• By Admin
• 18th September, 2021

Welcome to the second issue of the Agribusiness News magazine. This
issue comes at a time when many businesses, farming enterprises in-
cluded, are finding it hard to cope due to the insurgence and preva-
lence of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak worldwide.

Lesotho had a good Agricultural season this year but the effects of
Covid-19 still lingered at the beginning of the year as the country went
on a second lockdown after another outbreak of a second Covid-19 in
neighbouring South Africa. Naturally, our industry suffered because we
import most of our inputs from South Africa and at least 85 percent of
our food requirements are imported from that country.
Although there is a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel due to the
arrival of the vaccine, it will take countries several years to recover
fully, if at all. The scars are so deep that its impacts will be with us for
some time. Covid-19 has ushered the new normal, it quickly brought
us into the fourth industrial revolution sooner than we expected, as
we saw the unprecedented use of technology throughout the sectors
and therefore we are likely to see young people coming into farming.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Despite the darkness brought in by
Covid-19, many of our people had a lot to learn out of the pandemic
and we are likely to see people coming into agriculture in numbers like
never seen before. With the closure of the borders with South Africa
during lockdown, many people turned to sourcing locally produced
food and this led to more appreciation of local agricultural produce.

The second issue of the Agribusiness News Magazine will, among oth-
er things, help people aspiring to come into agriculture to learn and be
motivated by those already in agriculture. We are also having articles
that will assist investors in agricultural industry to make good decisions
on where they should put their money.

Enjoy the read!

- For feedback please email me at daniel@agribusinessnetwork.co.ls