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HIV/AIDS set to hit Southern African food production
Bruce Venter. 20 May 2004. Pretoria News. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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Southern Africa will have lost 16-million agricultural workers to HIV/AIDS by 2020, according to the United Nations. This frightening mortality rate is set to significantly impact on the region's capacity to sustain agricultural production, increasing poverty and resulting in severe food shortages.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that between 60 percent and 80 percent of AIDS-related deaths in the region are due to malnutrition and the region's economically active population (15-49 years) is being eroded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
According to James Morris, UN envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, this will drastically affect the region's food production capability and will further fuel already critical food shortages.
"The HIV/AIDS pandemic is threatening the very future of nations and a bold approach is needed to address the crisis of devastating illness and drought-afflicted agriculture," he said. Morris said the current crisis in Africa had not been fully grasped by the international community.
"An exceptional effort is urgently needed if a major catastrophe is to be averted. Business as usual will not do," Morris warned.
According to Scott Drimie, of the Human Sciences Research Council, food insecurity is not new to the region, but must be seen in the context of HIV/AIDS.
Drimie agrees with Morris, saying the "business as usual" approach to food security must be replaced by directly involving the communities concerned.
"The challenge is to develop food security interventions and farming practices that adapt to the reality of middle and late-stage HIV/AIDS affected environments and maintain productivity," he said.
Speaking at a conference on HIV/AIDS and poverty being held in Pretoria, Drimie said intervention strategies had to be developed alongside affected communities and government structures that will promote community-based initiatives.
"Given the reality of HIV/AIDS, the entire approach to development must undergo a vigorous reconceptualisation... interventions in any community should always combine development, relief and rehabilitation prospects," he said.
Michaela Clayton, of the AIDS Law Unit in Namibia, says poverty cannot be seen in isolation when addressing HIV/AIDS and food security.
"Poor people are people made poor by inequitable socio-economic structures, at household, village and national levels and on international levels of trade and commerce," she said.
Clayton said intervention strategies had to seek ways of alleviating poverty, which affects the agricultural capacity of communities who are most at risk from HIV/AIDS.
"Poverty increases vulnerability to HIV and economic empowerment in terms of food production will alleviate both poverty and the food shortage crisis," she said.
Bennie Van Zyl, of the Transvaal Agricultural Union-South Africa, said HIV/AIDS would have an impact on South African agricultural production.
"There will certainly be problems in the future, as mortality among farm workers will not only affect the labour market, but will also impact on the local food market," he said.
Van Zyl said it was difficult at this stage to calculate the long-term impact on South African agriculture, but said it presented a challenge to the industry.
As Southern Africa struggles with the pandemic, it also battles with drought and both will provide a host of long-term challenges to alleviate poverty and food security in the region.
"The world has a responsibility to feed the children, to get them to school and teach them about agriculture. These are extraordinary times and we're going to have... to deal with this convergence of problems," Morris warned.
The huge toll:
- 30-million Africans are living with HIV
- 150-million Africans have died of AIDS
- Four million of the 11-million orphans of HIV/AIDS in Africa have lost both parents
- Fewer than two percent of people requiring ARVs receive them
Agriculture loss:
- Seven-million agricultural workers in Southern Africa have been lost to HIV/AIDS since 1985.
- A further 16-million will be lost to HIV/AIDS by 2010.
- 60-80 percent of HIV/AIDS-related deaths are due to malnutrition
- 80 percent of Africa depends on subsistence agriculture
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