CHAPTER TWO: IMPLICATIONS OF HIV/AIDS FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

2.1 HIV/AIDS, gender and food security

Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, an estimated 25 million people have died of the disease and another 42 million are now infected with HIV. In Zambia, the present HIV prevalence is estimated at 16 percent. The national HIV prevalence among Zambian women of 15 - 24 years ranges from 17 to 25 percent, whereas the prevalence range for men in the same age category is 6 to 10 percent (UoC, 2003). The 16 percent national prevalence rate in Zambia belies the true impact of the pandemic because a far higher percentage of non-infected people are affected directly by the presence of the disease. The burden of ill health, caring for the chronically ill, premature death, and caring for HIV/AIDS orphans is manifested in the depletion of human, financial and physical assets and the disruption of social support mechanisms as well as local-level institutions.

The HIV/AIDS endemic has left many orphans, most of who are taken care of by female-headed households and grandmothers. FAO-led research in Southern Province indicated that one-third of the 766 randomly sampled households were caring for orphans, with female and male headed households looking after an average of respectively 1.7 and 1.4 orphans (FAO, 2003). In addition, 25% of the households looking after orphans were headed by grandmothers. The study also showed that female-headed households besides caring for more orphans tend to care for younger orphans than male-headed households^[1]. Consequently, female headed households with orphans have fewer economically active members in the household, as is reflected in a higher dependency ratio^[2], and thus experience more labour problems compared to male headed households (ibid).

Living Well with HIV/AIDS (FAO, 2002)

HIV/AIDS impacts on agricultural production and household food security in various ways. A direct impact is that of the loss of household labour. HIV/AIDS is unique by its nature in that it attacks the most productive segment in society, thus robbing households of adult labour and knowledge. HIV/AIDS also impacts on household labour availability indirectly as time spent on caring for afflicted household members takes away from time spent on agricultural activities and other household tasks. As a result, households reduce and/or delay the amount of weeding and often choose to plant less labour-intensive crops and smaller areas of land. HIV/AIDS also increases the inability of households to purchase important inputs such as fertiliser and improved seed, which has direct effects on productivity. FAO led research in the Northern part of Zambia showed that due to competing expenditure needs (e.g. medical fees, food purchase and inputs) over limited income, households that take care of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and female headed households with orphans are less able to buy farm inputs as compared to non-affected households (FAO, 2004)^[3]. The newly promoted cooperatives are an important vehicle in Zambia to access subsidised farm inputs. Yet, only few households with PLWHA and female headed households with orphans are members of cooperatives (ibid.). This is because of limited time, insufficient financial resources for membership fees and the down-payment and perhaps poor targeting.

Reduced cultivation, untimely operations and decreased investment in agriculture lead to a decrease in agricultural production and thus an increase in household food insecurity. FAO data for Northern Province shows that households with PLWHA experience longer periods of food insufficiency from their own produce than non-affected households^[4]. One result of this is a decrease in the nutritional status of these households simply because less food is grown by the family and less money is available to cover the shortfall. Unfortunately, the resulting malnutrition of these increasingly impoverished families is also associated with more rapid progression of HIV to HIV/AIDS and increases the vulnerability of HIV-positive persons to opportunistic infections, further hastening the need for yet more funds for the medicines needed to keep these patients alive.

Households directly affected by HIV/AIDS face significant challenges in trying to pay for medical treatment and, ultimately, funeral costs. These costs lead to a steady decline in the household asset base, and in some cases, households sell their agriculturally productive resources, including animals, equipment and inputs, to cope with the burden. FAO data for Southern Province shows that non-affected households own almost twice as many cattle, goats, chickens, ox ploughs and ox charts than female headed households with orphans (FAO, 2003).

Further, HIV/AIDS is contributing to a decline in traditional social cohesion within communities. The disease, which is noted for causing relatively long-term illness, and the attendant care required of the sick, as well as the stigma that remains attached to this disease, makes it hard for sick adults and their care-givers to participate in the kinds of traditional activities that hold societies together, such as communal meetings, political meetings, group economic efforts, ceremonial gatherings - and even attendance at school for the children of affected adults. While the precise figures are not known, HIV/AIDS illnesses are a significant contributing factor to high rate of school dropouts of children between the ages of 5 and 14 years.

The death of adults has strong inter-generational consequences that limit the ability of the next generation to acquire relevant livelihood skills. Because adults die before passing down their knowledge, many rural children are not acquiring the skills related to working the land or the management of farms. Indigenous local knowledge of such things as plant and animal biodiversity, the cropping cycle, proper nutrition, and the availability and use of traditional medicines is being lost.

Poverty and gender inequalities exacerbate the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS in multiple ways. Poverty increases HIV transmission through inferior health care, increased labour migration and the associated risk of having multiple partners, and survival sex. In desperation, women and children barter sex for money and food, exposing them to the risk of infection. For people who are already infected with HIV, poverty-linked malnutrition increases susceptibility to opportunistic infections, leading to an earlier onset of full-blown HIV/AIDS (FAO/SOFI, 2003). HIV/AIDS has a greater economic impact on poor than better-off households as it forces these households to draw on their assets to cushion the shock of illness, death and orphans. Further, HIV/AIDS has a disproportionate impact on the lives of women as women carry the brunt of the burden in caring for the sick and for orphans while also securing a livelihood for the household. HIV/AIDS worsens gender-based differences in access to land and other productive resources like labour, technology, credit and water. In those situations where a wife survives the death of her husband from HIV/AIDS, the weak position of women, and the stigma attached to the disease, contributes to excessive stripping or grabbing of productive assets from the surviving widow and her children, once the husband is deceased. Moreover, disempowerment of women makes it more difficult for them to protect themselves from being infected by their partners, exposes them to sexual abuse, and limits their access to knowledge about how to protect themselves (UNDP, 2002).

2.2 HIV/AIDS and the National Agricultural and Co-operatives Policy (2003 - 2015)

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Zambia (2002-2004) focuses on enhanced agriculture development for achieving economic growth. The failure by the agriculture sector in recent years to provide sustainable livelihoods for rural households is regarded by the Government as one of the major factors that has contributed to rural poverty and thus the Government sees the achievement of high and sustained growth in agriculture as a critical step to reduce poverty (TNDP, 2003).

A new National Agricultural and Co-operative Policy (NACP) should soon be adopted by Parliament. This plan (2003-2015) corresponds to the agriculture contribution to the PRSP and its main trust is to “promote the development of an efficient, competitive and sustainable agricultural sector, which assures food security and increased income” (NACP, 2003).

The main sector objectives under the NACP include the following:

- to ensure national and household food security;
- to ensure that the existing agricultural resource base is maintained and improved upon;
- to generate income and employment to maximum feasible levels;
- to contribute to sustainable industrial development; and
- to expand significantly the sector’s contribution to the national balance of payments;

HIV/AIDS poses a specific risk for successful implementation of the NACP as “the disease has a negative impact on agricultural production in that it debilitates productive labour and time” (NACP, 2003: pp 39). HIV/AIDS not only reduces production levels and deepens poverty, but also affects implementation of agricultural programmes through the loss of extension officers and other staff. Further, the epidemic has the potential to undermine MACO’s food security and income strategies that are labour-intensive and technology-driven. Table 1 provides an overview of HIV/AIDS induced challenges for successful implementation of the NACP. The HIV/AIDS endemic thus requires attention by the Ministry in various ways. The NACP particularly emphasises the need for HIV/AIDS related information to be incorporated in extension messages and to introduce HIV/AIDS in the curricula of agricultural training institutions (NACP, 2003).

Any response by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives should address the differing needs of vulnerable households affected by HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is changing the structure of the household demography from the traditional male-headed unit to increasingly units headed by either a widow, orphaned child or an elderly person, each having their special needs (Rugalema, 1999). To date, agricultural programmes and services have often bypassed these vulnerable groups. In particular, orphans, vulnerable children, young female adults and elderly are not much targeted and thus innovative approaches are needed to reach those vulnerable groups. In order to be responsive to their different needs, people living with HIV and AIDS, their families, young widows, elderly and female headed households must be an integral part of agricultural programmes.

Table 1: NACP sub-sector specific objectives and potential HIV/AIDS impacts

Source: MACO and Choma District Workshop on HIV/AIDS and the Agriculture Sector (10 - 12 May 2004)