Empowering rural households: New strategies for helping farmers fight HIV/AIDS with food security
With more money and political interest being directed towards AIDS than ever before, it is important to bring agriculture to the centre stage of the response to the disease. Most people in AIDS-ravaged parts of Africa live in rural areas, and rely on subsistence agriculture. Agricultural productivity and food security in sub-Saharan African are precarious due to AIDS, and there is an urgent need to reduce the debilitating grip of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods. Empowering smallholder farmers to be food secure is vital to preventing rural households slipping into a spiral of HIV and poverty.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the epidemic is undoing decades of economic and social development and causing rural disintegration. In areas where the disease is highly prevalent, the impact goes beyond the already incredible suffering and loss of life, undermining food security in many dimensions. HIV/AIDS primarily affects those aged 15 to 50 years – the core of the labour force. This has a direct impact on the ability of households to either produce sufficient food or to attend work in order to receive a wage and have the ability to purchase food.
Food insecurity increases vulnerability to HIV infection – poor nutrition contributes to poor health, low labour productivity, low income, and livelihood insecurity. As productive family members fall sick or die, the quantity and quality of food available to the household declines. The additional burden of caring for orphans and unproductive individuals can impact upon food security.
The agricultural sector is in a strong position to assist in both prevention and mitigation of the consequences of HIV/AIDS.
According to FAO, possible agriculture sector responses include:
**Labour-saving technologies. These include low-input agriculture; lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women and the elderly; improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding; intercropping; minimum tillage; access to potable water; and provision of fuel-efficient stoves that can free women for more economically productive activities.
**Knowledge preservation and transmission. This includes ensuring that basic agricultural skills are transmitted through formal and informal community institutions, such as extension services and schools, as well as einforcing community-based mechanisms to preserve local knowledge, including biodiversity and gender-specific agricultural skills
**Rural institutions and capacity-building. All rural service providers – for education, health, agricultural extension, credit and finance, women’s associations, nutrition groups, irrigation committees and terrace maintenance associations – need to be strengthened, in addition to local informal community networks, which provide most assistance to AIDS-affected households.
**Gender equality. Efforts must be made to reduce gender-based differences in access to and control of resources and livelihood assets – in particular, inequalities in access to land, credit, employment, education and information.
**Improving nutrition. Strategies here include: nutritional home gardens; use of improved crop management and plant varieties with higher yields; emphasis on staple crops; use of small ruminants for consumption, sale and manure; education and labour exchange arrangements.
**Social and economic safety nets. Efforts must be made to strengthen community-based initiatives, especially safety nets that are essential for food security.
**Monitoring and evaluation. Response strategies need to be appropriately monitored and evaluated to assist in the design and implementation of more effective programmes, to alleviate the impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods and food security. In addition, participatory monitoring systems should be developed so that the people themselves can measure progress.
**Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS. The experience of all partners, from all sectors, in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic must be built upon, in order to develop an effective agricultural strategy. Advocacy is necessary to increase political commitment and influence national policies.
HDN Key Correspondent
Correspondents@hdnet.org
(July 2004)
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the epidemic is undoing decades of economic and social development and causing rural disintegration. In areas where the disease is highly prevalent, the impact goes beyond the already incredible suffering and loss of life, undermining food security in many dimensions. HIV/AIDS primarily affects those aged 15 to 50 years – the core of the labour force. This has a direct impact on the ability of households to either produce sufficient food or to attend work in order to receive a wage and have the ability to purchase food.
Food insecurity increases vulnerability to HIV infection – poor nutrition contributes to poor health, low labour productivity, low income, and livelihood insecurity. As productive family members fall sick or die, the quantity and quality of food available to the household declines. The additional burden of caring for orphans and unproductive individuals can impact upon food security.
The agricultural sector is in a strong position to assist in both prevention and mitigation of the consequences of HIV/AIDS.
According to FAO, possible agriculture sector responses include:
**Labour-saving technologies. These include low-input agriculture; lighter ploughs and tools that can be used by older children, women and the elderly; improved seed varieties that require less labour for weeding; intercropping; minimum tillage; access to potable water; and provision of fuel-efficient stoves that can free women for more economically productive activities.
**Knowledge preservation and transmission. This includes ensuring that basic agricultural skills are transmitted through formal and informal community institutions, such as extension services and schools, as well as einforcing community-based mechanisms to preserve local knowledge, including biodiversity and gender-specific agricultural skills
**Rural institutions and capacity-building. All rural service providers – for education, health, agricultural extension, credit and finance, women’s associations, nutrition groups, irrigation committees and terrace maintenance associations – need to be strengthened, in addition to local informal community networks, which provide most assistance to AIDS-affected households.
**Gender equality. Efforts must be made to reduce gender-based differences in access to and control of resources and livelihood assets – in particular, inequalities in access to land, credit, employment, education and information.
**Improving nutrition. Strategies here include: nutritional home gardens; use of improved crop management and plant varieties with higher yields; emphasis on staple crops; use of small ruminants for consumption, sale and manure; education and labour exchange arrangements.
**Social and economic safety nets. Efforts must be made to strengthen community-based initiatives, especially safety nets that are essential for food security.
**Monitoring and evaluation. Response strategies need to be appropriately monitored and evaluated to assist in the design and implementation of more effective programmes, to alleviate the impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods and food security. In addition, participatory monitoring systems should be developed so that the people themselves can measure progress.
**Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS. The experience of all partners, from all sectors, in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic must be built upon, in order to develop an effective agricultural strategy. Advocacy is necessary to increase political commitment and influence national policies.
HDN Key Correspondent
Correspondents@hdnet.org
(July 2004)
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 10:12 am
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