Africa, AIDS and agriculture

Africa struggles more than any other continent to meet food needs for its population; poor and deteriorating soils, lack of water, inadequate infrastructure and years of neglect by policymakers have left agriculture in much of Africa in a parlous state. Added to which, the continent is reeling from HIV/AIDS. Deaths from HIV/AIDS has already deprived the 25 most HIV/AIDS-affected countries in Africa of seven million workers and, according to FAO estimates, could kill a further 16 million by 2020. The demographic, social, economic and political consequences will be catastrophic if no mitigating factors lessen the pandemic.

The impact of HIV/AIDS goes well beyond health costs and losses of skilled labour; its impact is having a devastating effect on food security, as many hundreds of thousands of people in rural areas have become infected and too ill to work. Then, as generations die prematurely, they have no time or opportunity to pass on indigenous knowledge and experience of cultivating crops, collecting wild plants and preparing and using them as food or medicines. Indigenous knowledge and biodiversity are very significant within rural communities, and may be increasingly important as tangible assets when other resources dwindle. "Innovation often dies with the farmers," explains Marcella Villarreal, focal point at FAO's HIV/AIDS. "They have developed ways to adapt their crops to the environment and when they die, so does their knowledge. Biodiversity is also threatened because in times of acute labour shortage, people plant fewer varieties of crops to save time and money."

Other parts of the world also have to cope with significant HIV/AIDS infection, particularly the Caribbean, but also Asia and now Eastern Europe. But two-thirds of HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa. In eight of these countries life expectation has fallen by 10 years, and in Botswana (where one in three adults is infected) and Zimbabwe, life expectancy has fallen more than 30 years. Because of its long incubation, the full impact of AIDS may still lie ahead. But it's estimated that by 2020 it could reduce the labour force in ten southern African countries, including Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, by 26 percent. Education is also suffering as children abandon education to take up the role of breadwinner for orphaned families.

A downward spiral of the family's welfare begins when the first adult falls ill. There is increased spending for health care and decreased productivity. As more adults are affected, food production and income drop dramatically. Research in Tanzania showed that per capita food consumption dropped by 15 percent in the poorest households when an adult died. Further, malnutrition increases the susceptibility to infections and consequently worsens the severity of HIV/AIDS disease.

FAO, IFAD and WFP, all Rome-based UN agencies, met for a technical consultation with government and NGO representatives 5-7 December. Countries represented were Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The meeting was co-sponsored by UNAIDS, and it is hoped that other agencies, such as UNDP, will cooperate to achieve a broad-based response to identifying innovative, gender sensitive and participatory approaches to fighting HIV/AIDS in rural areas and thus mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on food security, rural livelihoods and rural poverty.

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