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Agriculture and food security

This study looks at the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the socioeconomic impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa on the agricultural sector. The study focuses on households that are most affected, how those households respond to illness and death, and the interventions that would best fit into their needs.

The paper concludes that the results question the usefulness of a homogeneous conceptualisation of "affected households," especially in the context of proposals for targeted assistance and technology development.

This paper summarises empirical results from a synthesis of a set of country studies from Africa, looking at: the characteristics of deceased individuals; ex post household characteristics of affected and non-affected households; labour availability; land/labour ratios; cropping systems; and total household income.

Main findings from the study include:

• the post-death land/labour ratios and income of rural households directly affected by prime-age adult mortality are more heterogeneous than implied by some of the literature and discussion among development practitioners
• although affected households may well have suffered negative effects on household crop production and income, most affected households have similar ex post demographic characteristics, land/labour ratios, asset levels, and household incomes as compared to households without a death
• however, there are some categories of affected households which appear to be in greater need of interventions, for those which have suffered the death of a household head or spouse tend to have lower ex post land/labour ratios and income relative to households without a death, and thus are more likely to be in poverty.

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