AFRICA: Threat of a Perfect Storm - AIDS and a Fresh Food Crisis

• by 
Davison Mudzingwa
 (cape town)
• Wednesday, December 01, 2010
• Inter Press Service

'We are in a situation where generally food prices have gone down... but as the global recovery comes into place, we could as well see prices rise again,' said Scott Drimie, a research fellow with IFPRI, the International Food Policy Research Institute.

According to the World Food Program, 22 of the 30 high risk countries in need of external food assistance are in sub-Saharan Africa, many of which struggling with serious AIDS epidemics.

'When food prices are putting nutritious food out of reach of people living with HIV and AIDS, it becomes an immediate crisis,' added Drimie.

The AIDS pandemic confronts individuals, households and communities with multiple social, economic, environmental and health stresses that threaten their livelihoods. For ten years, IFPRI's Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods and Food Security (RENEWAL) has been studying the vulnerability of people living with HIV and AIDS in East and Southern Africa.

Sam Bota, RENEWAL coordinator in Malawi, says the first impact of AIDS is a direct loss of labour. 'A national census report (in Malawi) clearly shows that a high percentage of farmers spend a lot of time nursing sick relatives. And after the death, they lose a lot of time - sometimes as long as 20 days for the funeral - all that is a loss of productive time.'

Across the region, climatic changes are confronting stressed households with additional uncertainties over the timing and frequency of rain, often reducing yields or pushing farmers to switch to new and initially unfamiliar crops.

AIDS is also claiming key people who could be part of easing these transitions, addressing labour shortages, and maintaining resilience in adverse conditions. Studies in Malawi and neighbouring Zambia have shown how agriculture extension services have been impacted by HIV; cascading to food security.

In Malawi, there is a 46 percent vacancy rate of extension workers due to AIDS-related deaths. The loss of these knowledgeable people has huge implications for farmer productivity, says Bota.

Members of households slipping into food and income insecurity risk entering a dangerous cycle.

'Sudden increases in food insecurity can lead to distress migration as people search for food and work,' RENEWAL director Stuart Gillespie wrote during the 2008 food crisis. 'Mobility is a marker of enhanced risk of HIV exposure, both for the person moving, and for adults who may remain at home.'

Children may be taken out of school to work - at once put at higher risk of exposure to HIV in the work world, and missing out on an education that could lower their chances of eventually contracting AIDS. Food insecurity is also linked to higher levels of unprotected transactional sex for poor women.

The recommended actions call for going beyond short-term food aid for example, to make meaningful connections between the agriculture and health sectors.

The recommended actions call for going beyond short-term food aid for example, to make meaningful connections between the agriculture and health sectors.

'We have people that have no access to resources to produce food,' says Robert Ochai of Uganda's AIDS Support Organisation. 'Those people should not be left there to suffer. We should access land and financial loans for them make a change in their lives.

:We also need to change land policies which allow people to access land, so there is action for government, development partners and at individual level.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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