Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - December 9, 2005
Martin Plaut, BBC News, Lesotho
But now it is facing a triple crisis: sharply reduced demand for its labour, as the mines become exhausted; a rising tide of HIV and Aids, and declining agriculture as erosion and drought reduces its crop yields.
Standing in the village of Hakonyane, just an hour's drive south of the capital, Maseru, one can see the green fields of South Africa, about one kilometre away.
It looks lush, and the cattle are well fed. But in this village, the fields are green with the new shoots of grass brought by the rains, but no ploughing is under way.
I found Thabisi Hashatsi staring out over his fields. Oxen should be now yoked together, straining their backs to break the soil, but the fields are lying idle.
"I have no money for cattle," said Mr Hashatsi. "It is six years since I got a proper harvest."
Walking through the fields it is clear the village is in crisis. Hakonyane, like so many villages across this country seems in almost terminal decline.
Crisis
Aids is decimating its young people, leaving few able bodied adults to farm the fields.
Soil erosion cut deep furrows into the hillsides, taking Lesotho's precious topsoil to South Africa.
Drought has also played a part in this part of the country, although other areas did receive adequate rainfall.
The impact on crop production is clear. According to the UN's World Food Programme, in 1980 Lesotho produced 80% of its cereal needs. By the 1990's cereal production had fallen to 50% of the country's requirement.
By 2004 that figure stood at just 30%. The WFP describes the situation as one of "steady decline".
Cash
The loss of jobs on the mines has meant little cash coming into the area from remittances.
Mampo Musi is one of the few villagers lucky enough to still have a husband working on a South African mine.
It is estimated just seven out of 400 households in the village can rely on income from the mines. She is not happy about her husband being away from home, but the cash is very welcome.
Now she has to help her neighbours, many of whom earn next to nothing.
"They ask me, can you please give me a little maize. It makes me feel nervous.
"If I see someone who does not eat, I feel sorry for them."
Jobs
On the surface, life in the capital, Maseru, is very different. It's a bustling town, but even here the situation is grim.
A string of textile firms closed in the last year.
Ten thousand jobs have been lost since January. Many who came from the rural areas in search of work, are now unemployed.
Constance Shedile is one of those who lost her job.
"We were told to go home at times, and then told to come back.
"Sometimes we were not paid because the factory had no money. It went on like that until the factory closed. It was bad, because I did not know how I was going to live."
Falling income levels, declining food production and increasing HIV/Aids are having an unmistakeable impact on Basotho society.
Collapse
Funerals, which used to be held only on Saturday are now taking place on most days of the week. The life expectancy of the country is dropping dramatically.
The United Nations is currently feeding about a quarter of million out of Lesotho's two million people. But this isn't a temporary phenomenon.
The WFP's Mads Lofvall believes the situation is so severe that the social structure is close to collapse.
"You can easily find segments of the population starting to give up, because the problems are just growing bigger every day.
And when that happens people just live from day to day, because you do not see any future."
Despair
Back at the village of Hakonyane, Mr Hashatsi gazes out across his empty, fallow fields.
He's close to despair about the future.
"I don't think there will be any change. I don't think there will be any change in my life," he says.
Once villages like this would have been poor, but more or less self sufficient.
The fields would have produced enough maize, beans and sorghum to feed its people.
But this is no longer the case.
Now an air of despair hangs over every hut and hope has all but disappeared.
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