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						Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 
						February 2006, 02:49 GMT
						 
						

							
						

 
						
					
				
				

					

						

						

							

								Lesotho starves in rich SA's shadow 
						
						
					
					

						

						Lesotho's relationship with South Africa has long 
						been one of rich neighbour, poor neighbour, as the BBC 
						News website's Justin Pearce found when he visited a 
						village in southern Lesotho. 
						

						
						

							

								

								

									 
									

										Farmers like Moloko Lekhoana make do 
										with less land and money
								
								
							
						
						"There's not enough food. The fields have 
						not been planted." 
						
Moloko Lekhoana stands on the wall of an earth dam 
						that he and his neighbours are building by hand, and 
						looks at the ruined soil that surrounds his village of 
						Morifi, in southern Lesotho. 
						
His situation is no different from that of 500,000 
						people in Lesotho - a quarter of the population - who 
						don't have enough food. 
						
"Last year I produced only three bags of maize," Mr 
						Lekhoana says. 
						
It is not hard to believe that this land is 
						unproductive. In places it looks like an elephant's 
						hide: hard, grey and crinkled. 
						
Elsewhere, the soil has been eroded into brittle 
						ridges - in one place a column of earth rises two metres 
						high, topped by a single bush whose roots are all that 
						holds the soil together. 
						
Over the hill, you can look down onto a plain where a 
						line of trees marks the South African border. The 
						commercial farms on the other side are smooth and green.