The AIDS epidemic is undermining the pillars of rural development and the possibilities of its long-term sustainability in southern Africa. An integrated effort at all levels of leadership is needed to counter the epidemic. 

Various national and international workshops have come up with commitments and new statistics, which have not been translated into real action. Serious political commitment and adequate resource allocation are essential elements to save the lives of millions of persons and the economic viability of the societies involved. Increasingly, the impact of AIDS on small-holder agriculture is being felt in the region, with more attention being redirected to rural communities.

According to Sustainable Agricultural/Rural Development and Vulnerability to the AIDS Epidemic, a UNAIDS and FAO publication, the cost of HIV/AIDS is largely borne by rural communities, given that HIV infected urban dwellers return to their village of origin when they fall ill. Rural households provide most of the care for AIDS patients. 

The book adds that “food costs, medical care and funeral expenses are borne by rural families…yet this is rarely factored in nation-wide development policies and programmes (which are often urban-based), or in agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.” 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) work in the area of HIV/AIDS and agriculture has shown that the HIV/AIDS pandemic exacerbates existing obstacles to sustainable agricultural production and increases food insecurity, with varying degrees of impact on gender.  

The AIDS epidemic can cause a major agricultural labour shortage in future, with seven million agricultural workers already lost and at least 16 million more that could die before 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, hence a potentially dire effect on food security.  

In addition, by killing farmers, extension workers and teachers, AIDS can undermine the inter-generational transmission of knowledge and know-how and the local capacity to absorb technology transfers, which constitute pillars of sustainable rural development. 

A recent FAO study analysed the impact of HIV/AIDS on farming communities in Namibia according to the type of household. The results showed that for all types of households, AIDS deaths meant severe labour shortages and loss of productive resources through the sale of livestock to pay for sickness, mourning and funeral expenses, as well as a sharp decline in crop production. 

The loss of farm labour also meant missing the ideal sowing periods, which are few and of short duration, and therefore sometimes resulted in the loss of the entire production for the season. Delayed weeding means a higher labour demand, already scarce due to AIDS morbidity and mortality and a loss of crop productivity.  

The FAO/UNAIDS report points out that there are few institutions operating and availing HIV/AIDS information, education and communication programmes, providing testing and counselling fore HIV in rural areas than in urban areas. Such services are both less tailored to the local realities such as culture, illiteracy, gender and age differentiation. 

HIV/AIDS, gender and agricultural production are thus closely inter-related. An understanding of these complex inter-actions is a key to planning for sustainable development. They should be taken into account in order to develop effective interventions in any of the three areas.  

As put by AIDS and African Smallholder Agriculture, a recent Southern African AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAFAIDS) publication, the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households worsens already apparent adverse trends in African agriculture and agrarian development, notably shortage of labour and capital, lack of suitable agro-technical research, and the inability of African agriculture to attract and retain young people with weak networks of family support.  

Strong, effective and sustained national and international leadership efforts have been called for to:  

• promote a better understanding of the interactions between gender dynamics, HIV/AIDS, food security and rural development;
• create awareness among leaders at all levels of these interactions and about the need to incorporate them into all prevention and mitigation activities;
• ensure the political commitment necessary to undertake an integrated effort to combat AIDS and to sustain it over time; and
• create awareness of the necessary interventions and make available the means to implement them and follow them through the process.

Governments have been urged to ensure that every rural development and food security policy is gender and HIV/AIDS-sensitive to balance the food production resource base. (SARDC)