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African biodiversity and indigenous knowledge
Courtesy of IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 57, 14 December 2001
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Indigenous knowledge and biodiversity are the most important - and often the only - assets in many poor, rural societies, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in a recent statement. But HIV/AIDS threatens even this fragile legacy, blocking the transmission of traditional agricultural knowledge and practices to children and eroding the basis of food security.
"Innovation often dies with the farmers," explained Marcela Villarreal, FAO's focal point for 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 shortages, people plant fewer varieties of crops to save time and money."
Africa is especially hard hit because of the sheer number of people who are infected with HIV. "In Kenya, for example, only 7 percent of
orphan-headed households reported that they had enough agricultural knowledge to carry on farming," Villarreal said. Of the 13.2 million AIDS orphans worldwide, more than 12 million are in Africa, according to UNAIDS.
"The fundamental roles of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge in sustaining the agriculture of Africa's poorest people have often been neglected in the agricultural and rural development sector," said Josep-Antoni Garí, a consultant with FAO's Sustainable Development
Department." They represent local resources with enormous potential in the fight against food insecurity and the devastating impacts of HIV/AIDS." He cited the resilience of many traditional, yet neglected, crops that require less attention than cash crops and are therefore valuable additions to households where able-bodied people are already under extreme stress. These plants also require fewer material inputs, such as fertiliser, as they are adapted to the local environment. This allows people to save what money they have for medicines or other essential supplies.
[This item is delivered to the "PlusNews" HIV/AIDS Service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.] |
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