The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has praised Send a Cow for its contribution to a major project in Lesotho, in southern Africa.

Send a Cow has been organising teams of 'peer farmers' to live in communities in the Mafeteng district.

Since April 2006, the charity has trained 1,900 families in sustainable agriculture and group dynamics. Family members in turn are passing on the same techniques they learned from Send a Cow to fellow community members.

In a letter to Send a Cow Team Leader, Khotso Mapapesa, FAO Country Representative Juliet Aphane said she had found Send a Cow Lesotho's "innovative strategies and techniques to be very appropriate for protecting and improving livelihoods".

She expressed hope that the partnership would continue in the project's second phase, which should involve distributing livestock, like rabbits, goats and poultry, and extending work to another district.

Send a Cow is continuing to work in Lesotho as the FAO and World Food Programme warn that the country is in "urgent need" of international assistance if a major food crisis is to be averted.

A new joint report released this week by the two organisations details how the country has been hit by high cereal prices after this year's main cereal harvest was largely destroyed by one of the worst droughts to hit Lesotho in 30 years.

According to the report, some 400,000 people across Lesotho - or one fifth of the total population - will face food shortages and will need assistance at the height of the crisis in the first three months of 2008. Serious food shortages could start to set in as early as the third quarter of this year, the WFP and FAO warn, when around 140,000 people will require food assistance.