THE KINGDOM OF LESOTHO COMBINED SECOND TO EIGHTH PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA  Block farming Challenges 471. Due to a number of factors, Lesotho faces chronic food insufficiency and hunger. These factors include:  Constrained food supply: caused by declining agricultural productivity. The country, thus, relies on food imports; which are expensive, and depletes foreign reserves;  Limited access to food: poverty and an extremely skewed income distribution that limit the poor’s access to food;  Poor food utilization caused by inadequate feeding and food preparation practices, limited dietary diversity and skewed intra-household distribution of food; and  Instability caused by climate change, the El Niño induced drought of the 2015-16 season, food price hikes, and economic shocks (devaluation).74 472. The table below shows the dire situation of food insecurity in Lesotho. The numbers rose from 270,000 people in 2003/04 to 948,000 the following year in 2004/05 and has been fluctuating. As at 2013/14, the number stood at 447,760 people who were at the risk of food insecurity. Number of people in need of food Aid 2003-2014 in Lesotho 74 World Bank, 2015; LDHS, 2014; Lesotho MDGs End-point Report, 2015. 164