Crop Failure and Household Food Security Amongst Smallholder Farmers in Drought-Prone Southern Regions of Lesotho

We investigated prevalence of crop failure and food insecurity among smallholder farming households in Southern Lesotho, examining socio-demographic correlates with these reported outcomes. We adopted a cross-sectional design involving 771 smallholder farmers reliant on field crop production across three districts. Household food security was measured using Food Consumption Score (FCS) and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to estimate adjusted odds ratios for associations of demographic factors with food security outcomes. A total of 737 (95.6%) participants reported crop losses. Nearly half of households that reported crop losses were severely food-insecure based on HFIAS and FCS. Households without secondary source of income were at higher odds of being in a more food-insecure category. For HFIAS, female-headed households had higher odds of being in a more food-insecure category. For FCS, households that relied on rain-fed irrigation and had agricultural land holdings of <5 hectares had higher odds of being in a more food-insecure category. Addressing crop loss-related food insecurity requires integrated, sustainability-oriented strategies that span climate-resilient agriculture, livelihood diversification, strengthened sex-responsive intervention, and social protection systems. We recommend anticipatory action systems to target groups identified as most vulnerable in this analysis to provide support before, during, and after drought events.