Mope is from Lesotho, a tiny African nation whose borders are located entirely inside the country of South Africa. He is the first Mosotho at EARTH and hopes to see more of his countrymen and women in the following years.
He learned the value of agriculture at a young age: his father is a farmer, and often had to sell one of their few animals to pay for his school fees. Mope also cultivated and sold crops to help support his family and initiated several volunteer projects in his community.
Mope dreams of using all that he learns at EARTH to change the perception of agriculture and help his continent prosper. “Not many people are willing to go into agricultural because it supposedly has a lot of risks, and I feel that if we keep that mentality we will never prosper as a continent. If everyone has food to eat there will be much less conflict. Agriculture is one of the most important but most neglected sectors. I think of myself as African now and not Lesotho, because my goals reach much farther than just my small country.”