THE STATE AND DEVELOPMENT - AN ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY IN LESOTHO, 1970-1993

This is an interpretation of major trends rather than an exhaustive ac count of agricultural policy in Lesotho. The aim of this paper is to s ituate the discussion of agricultural policy within the nexus of exter nal influence, domestic social relations and macro-economic forces. Th e discussion begins by detailing the main socio-economic changes from 1970 to the early 1990s, which appear to have precipitated a rural cri sis. It will be shown that there is evidence of growing poverty and ru ral differentiation resulting from limited opportunities for employmen t and falling per capita agricultural production. Many of these featur es can neither be predicted nor analysed by the existing academic lite rature on contemporary Lesotho. The most influential of this work has been concerned to locate Lesotho as a 'labour reserve', and intimately bound up with the construction of this literature has been the assump tion of a fundamentally homogeneous rural populace. This has precluded an analysis of the political or class character of Basotho society, a nd this has extended to analysis of the state. While the tools of star e policy have been few, it will be argued that government intervention has a political, not a technical, character. Intervention has taken t he form not only of outright conflict with donors, but also move commo nly of government intransigence. Implemented agricultural policy has h ad little positive effect on the poorest, but it has maintained powerf ul rural elites and hence the rural status quo.