Helping vulnerable families build sustainable livelihoods by developing agricultural techniques, such as keyhole gardens which enables them to grow food even during periods of drought.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) report, issued on 12 June 2007, an estimated 410,000 people of the country's 1.9 million inhabitants will struggle to meet their basic food needs
due to extensive crop failure after experiencing one of the most severe droughts in the last 30 years. Environmental damage caused by over farming and soil erosion compounds the problems associated with drought.

World Vision and partners has introduced an innovative
pilot project called keyhole gardens, to explore ways of improving the health and livelihoods of people through suitable sustainable farming and water harvesting techniques.

The techniques taught  are specifically designed to increase the fertility and water-holding capacities of soil. The introduction of manure, combined with knowledge in how to compost and create double-dug beds and keyhole gardens, for instance, has led to farmers experiencing up to five-fold increases in crop yields.

Keyhole gardens are born

The building of keyhole garden started as a US funded Food For Asset activity that uses food resources as an incentive for communities to learn and put to use new and appropriate agronomical practices.

“Keyhole gardens” are so called because, from the top,
each one looks like a keyhole. The keyhole garden is a cylindrical structure made of alternating layers of suitable soil and kraal manure with some ash mixed with the soil. These materials are supported by an outer layer of stone and have at the center, a column of alternating layers of manure and ash held within a porous basket. The bottom of the structure contains pieces of aloe/sisal and scrap metal collected from around the compound.

The gardens are raised to waist level and have a wedge missing to make them easier for people to access. This  concept is to accommodate the aged and infirm, the raised platform also reduces damage caused by domestic animals. Vegetables usually planted are spinach, rape, onion, beetroot, choumolia and carrots.

All gardens are built with locally available material, it is relatively easy to construct and highly productive and
make’s use of domestic waste water for watering and the water conservative basket method.

The practicality of these gardens is its high productivity,  making it a suitable asset for vegetable production to complement the food basket distributed to vulnerable groups all year round. The keyhole garden concept not
only provides local farmer with training in organic farming methods in order for poor farmers to make use of their
land and work their way out of poverty, but is easy to construct and maintain.

The extreme environmental situation faced in Lesotho meant adapting this model radically. Not only was the mountainous landscape unsuitable for certain livestock, it also became clear that to ensure year-long food security there was a need to introduce water harvesting techniques to complement the training providing in organic farming methods.