United Nations Radio

Subsistence farmers in the impoverished southern African kingdom of Swaziland will get help from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to buy seeds as rising prices put agricultural inputs beyond the reach of many.

Speaking to reporters at a school-based project outside the capital Mbabane, FAO director-general Jacques Diouf said the agency would give farmers vouchers to buy seeds from local producers to ensure they grow food.

Most of Swaziland's around 1 million people live off the land on less than a dollar a day. Rising prices have compounded food insecurity in the country that is regularly beset by drought, and where able-bodied workers are being lost in droves to HIV/AIDS.

Diouf met with AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children who are learning agricultural and water conservation skills under the Junior farmer Field and Life Schools initiative.

The project, run in collaboration with other UN agencies, has benefited more than 500 students over the past two years.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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