AGRICULTURE AND THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

By Jacques Diouf and - - Reprint | | Print |

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ROME, Jul 1 2003 (IPS) - The silent tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging many rural areas of developing countries and jeopardising the human right to food of millions of people, writes Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Hunger and poverty, aggravated by HIV/AIDS, create a vicious cycle. Where farmers and their families fall sick, they cultivate less land and shift to less labour-intensive and less nutritious crops; agricultural productivity decreases, and food insecurity and malnutrition rise. In this article for IPS, the author writes that while agriculture offers no cure for the HIV/AIDS infected, it can contribute to prevent and mitigate the crisis. Labour-saving technologies such as lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women, and the elderly and improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding need to be developed.

The silent tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging many rural areas of developing countries and jeopardising the human right to food of millions of people. Around 70 percent of the population of the most affected countries live in rural areas.

At the beginning of the epidemic, HIV/AIDS was predominantly an urban problem, affecting more men than women and those with relatively high incomes. Now the epidemic is rapidly spreading in the rural areas, hitting mostly women and the poor. Currently, around 30 million of the 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS can be found in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV/AIDS is dramatically changing the social and economic fabric of many rural communities. It poses a heavy burden on millions of people who are infected and their families, both in terms of their capacity to produce and to buy food. FAO estimates that AIDS has already killed around 7 million agricultural workers since 1985 in the hardest-hit countries in Africa and that 16 million more may die before 2020. Some countries could lose up to one quarter of their agricultural labour force by that year. The epidemic depletes the region of its food producers and farmers.

Hunger and poverty, aggravated by HIV/AIDS, create a vicious cycle. Where farmers and their families fall sick, they cultivate less land and shift to less labour-intensive and less nutritious crops; agricultural productivity decreases, and food insecurity and malnutrition rise. In southern Africa, for example, the pandemic has aggravated hunger and chronic undernutrition and reduced resilience in surviving drought.

If parents fall sick or die, the responsibility for growing food often rests with their children and the elderly. Around 12 million African children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. Many lose their parents before learning how to farm, prepare food, or fend for themselves. Not surprisingly, severe hunger and malnutrition among orphans has already been reported.

Traditional safety nets are collapsing in the worst-affected communities, where families and neighbours become too burdened to help each other with food, loans, a hand in the fields, or care of orphans.

HIV/AIDS is increasing in rural areas also because many people living in the cities and migrant workers return to their home villages when they become sick. At the same time as these former migrant workers stop sending money home, medical bills and funeral expenses increase. As the number of productive family members declines, the number of dependants grows.

On the other hand, where hunger and malnutrition increase, people are often forced to leave their villages and migrate to the cities for work, contributing to the spread of the virus.

In social and economic terms, the HIV/AIDS epidemic hits women hardest, poor rural women in particular. Women generally shoulder the burden of caring for the sick and dying, which diverts their energies from agricultural production, child care, and work that would provide income. The result is household food insecurity and declining nutrition and health. And in some societies, women who become widows lose their access to land and property, which can lead them to engage in commercial sex as their only means of subsistence.

The epidemic is also placing a heavy burden on the elderly, who increasingly have to take care of sick adults and of feeding and educating their grandchildren, orphaned at an early age. In communities where large numbers of adults are dead, agriculture simply cannot continue with “business as usual.”

While agriculture offers no cure for the HIV/AIDS infected, it is in a unique position to mitigate some of the effects of the epidemic. Labour-saving technologies such as lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women, and the elderly and improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding need to be developed. Seeds that can be planted at different times of the year will give farmers more flexibility in periods of acute labour shortage. Techniques, or varieties, that cut down the time needed to weed, can reduce women’s labour.

Women also need equal rights to land, credit, and education. Small-scale water-harvesting, irrigation, and drainage systems are needed to make year-round agricultural production more secure. Attention must be paid to improving the nutrition of the HIV/AIDS infected, which can help the body fight the disease. By maintaining body weight, a good diet can support drug treatments and prevent malnutrition. Home gardens as well as poultry production can contribute to better nutrition and income generation at the same time.

Together with the World Health Organisation, FAO has recently published a manual on nutritional care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. FAO is supporting countries in developing and promoting less labour intensive agricultural techniques, including conservation agriculture. The organisation promotes farmers field schools, where farmers learn about methods to defend their crops as well as AIDS prevention.

The international community has a responsibility to assist governments and rural communities in developing strategies and actions for dealing with the epidemic. HIV/AIDS is a long-term emergency and it will intensify with time. A food security response to the epidemic is imperative. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)