Zero grazing to zero tillage
There is a joke told in Uganda that concerns "zero grazing", but it has nothing to do with tethered livestock fed on cut-and-carry fodder. The AIDS message is so widely promoted, so widely understood and, it seems, respected by so many, that it is safe to comment on safe sex by making jokes about zero grazing.
Uganda is internationally admired for the efforts made to control the spread of AIDS where
public information in the form of posters, radio, TV and drama has turned a subject that, in other
countries remains taboo, into an acceptable subject for discussion.
The result has been
impressive. The estimated HIV infection rate has been dropping for the last five years and, by the
end of 1997, had fallen to 9.5% of adults between the ages of 15 - 49. Recent surveys indicate
that HIV prevalence among pregnant women has dropped from 30% a few years ago to around 10%. But
national statistics, albeit trending in the right direction, hide the very real difficulties
experienced by farm families affected by HIV/AIDS. Who will weed the crops while the wife, who
usually does so, is tending her sick husband? Who will clear the land, sow the crops, look after
the livestock? And who will harvest, dry, store or sell the produce? Are agricultural research
scientists thinking about ways to reduce the labour burden on those that are left - the
elderly and the very young?
According to figures quoted by the Worldwatch Institute, the HIV infection rate among adults in South Africa, based on antenatal clinic surveys in April this year, stands at 22%. This is a jump of more than half over the 14% estimate made in late 1997. Can South Africa learn from Uganda's experience and reverse this trend? If not, what is going to happen to agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa in the next few decades?
