It’s harvest time in Lejone, a small village in the mountains of southern Africa, more than two thousand meters above sea level.

The yield is not grain or fruit, but rainbow trout – the catch of a hilly river at the foot of Lesotho’s peaks.

Fishermen pull nets full of trout onto a floating platform.

The fish are killed and placed on ice, the first step on their journey to dining tables in neighboring South Africa.

The settlement is home to one of Lesotho’s two professional fish farms – pioneering ventures in the poor landlocked kingdom.

Stephen Phakisi, 59, founded Katse Fish Farms with two partners in 2005.

Today, he smiles about how the trio entered the business with a scant knowledge of some of his strangers, including the best feed for fast fattening fish.

“It was completely uneconomical for five years,” says Phakisi.

He recalls once finding a school of fish dead and belly up in the water, while another time a whole batch of imported fry died on a 16-hour drive from Cape Town.

Today, the company is profitable with an annual production of 800 tons of fish, which sells for around US$4 per kilogram.

It supplies some local restaurants, where the trout is usually fried in butter for a few minutes and served with a side of kale and potato chips or rice.

But the bulk of its production ends up on the shelves of high-end supermarkets in neighboring South Africa, where a one-kilo vacuum-packed bag can cost as much as $50.

Lesotho trout farming has grown on the back of another of the mountain country’s most celebrated exports: water.

South Africa gets much of its water from its neighbor, which has dammed several of its waterways over the past three decades.

The dams have widened the riverbeds, creating bays and pools ideal for trout farming.

Katse Fish Farms sits more than 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above sea level on the Malibamatso River, upstream of the vast Katse Dam reservoir that supplies South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, and largest city, Johannesburg.

Fish farming currently accounts for less than 0.1 percent of Lesotho’s $2 billion GDP.

Locals say they have always eaten salted, sun-dried freshwater fish. And young lads sell fresh catch to passing motorists.

But as dam construction progresses, the country has the potential to “become a regional leader in aquaculture,” according to the Lesotho National Development Corporation.

In this country of just over two million people, which is one of the poorest in the world, few seem to be benefiting from the water boom so far.

“We sell water to South Africa, but we don’t have water in our homes,” says Joshua Sefali, a village chief in Lejone.

Many of the village’s stone houses with thatched roofs have neither water nor electricity.

Large areas of land were flooded after the construction of dams.

Some people lost their homes and access to farmland with little compensation.

Machaka Khalala, 31, said she received about $165 when the field where she used to grow corn and spinach was flooded.

Now she makes a living selling “fat cakes,” a local donut.

But that’s often not enough to make ends meet.

With a cap on her head, Khalala stood amidst dozens of people queuing in the cold, bucket in hand, by the roadside in the mountains.

This is where Lesotho’s other fish farm hands out leftovers every week – “the heads and the backbones,” Khalala said.