HIV & AIDS: A Very Short Introduction by Alan Whiteside

Author:Alan Whiteside
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780191040979
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2016-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Subsistence agriculture and the ‘new variant famine’ hypothesis

The majority of people in high-prevalence countries live in rural areas and are primarily dependent on subsistence agriculture. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, 64 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively, are rural dwellers. Exceptions are Botswana and South Africa where 61 per cent and 63 per cent are urban. In general rural populations are less well-served with health facilities, which means illness may be more common, last longer, and be more severe.

There is evidence AIDS is having an adverse effect on agriculture, mainly, but not only, through the impact on labour. Agricultural production, even most basic subsistence small holdings, does not operate in a vacuum. AIDS means key services such as marketing cooperatives and agricultural extension may be less efficient due to staff illness and death, and possibly declining morale. Illness among subsistence farmers means high-value and nutritious crops, such as cereals and oilseeds, are replaced by low-value and less nutritious ones that are easier to cultivate. The area planted may be reduced. There is an impact on animal husbandry: livestock get less attention.

Examples from Southern Africa show how AIDS has impacted agriculture. In Zambia’s Central Province, the effect of adult illness and death on farm production was assessed among smallholder cotton farming households between 1999 and 2003. There were high levels of death and illness, 40 per cent of households had an adult death in the study period and 36 per cent reported an adult was sick ‘regularly’. Where households experienced the death of a previously healthy, working-age adult the amount of land planted to maize declined by 16 per cent and that under cotton by 11 per cent. Across the border in a Zimbabwean communal farming area, a study found an adult death resulted in a 45 per cent decline in a household’s marketed maize. Where the cause of death was identified as AIDS the loss was 61 per cent.

In Malawi prevalence in adults (aged 15 to 49) was 10 per cent in the early 2000s. A Care International survey in the Central Region found a significant number of households suffered from chronic illness. They were unable to provide the labour needed for even low productivity subsistence agriculture. Between 22 per cent and 64 per cent of households in study sites suffered from sickness, leading to loss of labour. In these households, 45 per cent delayed agricultural operations, 23 per cent left land fallow, and 26 per cent changed the crop mix. Resources were used for health care and funerals, and led to even lower levels of household income and nutrition. Female-headed households were worst affected as women do much of the agricultural work and combine this with childbearing and rearing, and household responsibilities. They have the ‘double burden of care’: they are most likely to suffer from HIV and AIDS, and they are responsible for caring for others.

The picture that emerges from Malawi is of an increasingly malnourished, stressed society. There is long-term environmental degradation: 85 per cent of energy comes from traditional fuel, mainly wood, leading to massive deforestation.

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