Minimising the impact of HIV/AIDS on farming households

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is threatening agricultural development in the poorest areas of the world. HIV/AIDS affects more than the health of individuals: it undermines household economies, pushing entire rural communities towards poverty. These communities need urgent action to protect the hard-won achievements in reducing rural poverty and stimulating agricultural growth.

HIV/AIDS is increasingly a rural disease. When it affectsfarming families, it has devastating effects. Families lose labour due tosickness, death and trauma. Consequently, they are forced to take children outof school, change crop cultivation patterns or leave fields fallow. They usesavings and sell assets to pay for medical bills and funeral expenses. Widowsleave their fields to their late husbands’ families. Parents die before theypass on agricultural knowledge and skills to their children. This results in widespreadpoverty and food insecurity.

The impacts of the disease are cumulative and the effectsspread far beyond households. Research from the Overseas Development Institute,UK, traces the impacts of HIV/AIDS from affected households and farmingcommunities to the rural economy and the agricultural sector as a whole.

Impacts upon the rural economy include:

• diminishedgovernment services due to sickness or the death of staff
• a lossof remittances as urban workers fall sick and return to the villages
• depressed prices for farm produce as domestic demandfalls and poverty levels rise.

Preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and caring for patientsare obvious priorities for policymakers. Health, education and nutritionprogrammes are vital. However, many areas also need specific policies forreversing the negative impacts within the agricultural sector. Policymakersmust consider HIV/AIDS alongside other impacts and causes of poverty andvulnerability. It is important to avoid HIV/AIDS ‘exceptionalism’, wherebyaffected households are treated, and sometimes stigmatised, as a special case.

Food transfers are a common response in countries with highHIV/AIDS prevalence rates. Food packages may indeed be the most appropriateresponse for young children facing malnutrition. However, cash transfers may bea more cost-effective method for households in general. For example, evidencefrom India shows that one rupee of food costs two rupees to acquire anddeliver. More research is needed to discover effective and affordable ways ofoffering social protection to all affected groups.

The research makes several policy suggestions:

• Providingschool meals or bursaries to prevent labour-poor families withdrawingchildren from school.
• Improvingrural finance systems and encouraging new forms of insurance, such asburial societies, to reverse household losses of capital.
• Disseminatingseed, fertilisers and labour-saving technology to affected households.
• Strengtheningthe rights of women and orphans to own household land after the death of amale family member.
• Offeringtraining in business skills, fostering farmer associations andunderwriting marketing schemes to minimise the impact of HIV/AIDS onsupply chains.