Draft in the Rough

Agrarian Structure of Africa

AIDS is the largest killer on the African continent, as of late 2003, AIDS had killed 20 million people and there are over 30 million people in Africa living with HIV (Wisner, Toulmin, and Chitiga 113). No other known disease has comparable implications for human progress; therefore, the world lacks a cultural format for responding to a threat such as this. However, it is becoming increasingly more apparent that HIV/AIDS is not just a health issue but something that will affect a nation’s entire social, economic, political, and environmental structures.

One issue that has been gaining a significant amount of attention in the past five years is that of food security as a result of changes in the agricultural structure due to HIV/AIDS. In 1993, the population of people who made their living from agriculture in Africa was 399 million, by 2003, this number had risen to 460.7 million. However, over the same period of time, the total population increased from 673 million to 850.5 million (Barnett and Whiteside 240). This means that the overall population is growing far more quickly that the agricultural population making Africa the only continent where overall per capita food supply has fallen over the past thirty years (Barnett and Whiteside 253). In rural Africa, most agriculture involves a great deal of human labor and HIV/AIDS tends to affect the most productive age group which has severe implications for agriculture.

Agriculture is affected by HIV/AIDS in many ways including a loss of knowledge, a trend toward female and AIDS orphan headed households, and a lack of proper nutrition. These are the most common affects although the issues of agriculture are myriad and varied with different problems arising from country to country and even from one village to the next. However, the problems, while different, are tied together and create a continuous cycle of sickness, malnutrition, and environmental degradation. For example, when a person is infected with HIV, they have higher nutritional requirements. However, when they are sick they cannot cultivate their land to the same extent which results in decreased food production and thus, reduced consumption for the household. Reduced food consumption leads to malnutrition within the household which makes the rest of the people within the household more susceptible to disease.

When agricultural stability is compromised, nutrition will inevitably be compromised as well. When a family member of working age is infected with HIV, the first response is often to “downshift” (Barnett and Whiteside). This means that the family will decrease the number and range of crops grown and sacrifice cash crops for food crops as well as easy to grow root crops to sustain the family. Unfortunately these root crops are also less nutritious so downshifting results in results in not only a decrease in income but decrease in nutrition as well.

Links Between HIV/AIDS and Food Security

Although the direct effects of AIDS are physical, there are many indirect effects that, in the long run, are just as serious. One such issue is that of changes in the agrarian structure and its effects on food security. Food security and agricultural sustainability have also been affected by structural changes occurring alongside the AIDS epidemic. These changes include structural adjustment policies, long-term food insecurity (independent of HIV/AIDS), environmental and climate changes, as well as political crises dealing with state legitimacy (Barnett and Whiteside 252). In order to fully address this issue, one must break it down into four different components; environmental, economic, social, and health issues.

Environmental
The environmental and agricultural affects of HIV/AIDS manifest in changing agricultural practices, reduced productivity, impoverishment, and a decrease in overall food security. Generally, the first response to HIV in farming households is downshifting (Barnett and Whiteside 252). This results in a decrease to both the number as well as range of crops grown. Although the process of downshifting is linked to issues dealing with household economics and health, it also poses environmental problems dealing with soil quality. Decreasing the range of crops grown leads to, in its most extreme form, a monoculture. Monocultures are easier to maintain; however, it leads to a strain on soil nutrients. When only one crop is planted, it will leach the same nutrient from the soil without replenishing it. The effects of a monoculture will not appear instantly although they will continue to get worse over time. As a single crop is grown season after season, it takes nutrients from the soil without added inputs. When food is scarce, the greatest concern is the nutrient input for the people, not the soil. The longer this occurs, the more the problem compounds which leads to a situation where crops can no longer grow on that land. However, the loss of productive land for food cultivation is not the only consequence of a monoculture. This soil degradation can also lead to soil erosion and flooding. Soil erosion can occur by wind or water. When nutrients are depleted, the soil structure is compromised and can be easily displaced. This results in a decrease in suitable land for growing and can also deposit poor quality soil on top of fertile soil. This poor quality soil also creates a situation apt to flooding because poor quality soil cannot absorb water.

Another effect of HIV/AIDS is a loss of agricultural knowledge. In speaking about agricultural knowledge, the AIDS epidemic presents a paradox; it erodes agro-biodiversity and indigenous knowledge at a time when it is pertinent in achieving food security and mitigating the effects of the disease (Hlanze, Gama and Mondlane 11). The sickness and death that results from HIV/AIDS reduces the amount of time spent with children in the fields, the place where agricultural knowledge occurs (Garí 2). Newer generations are losing the knowledge of how to sustain farming systems. A study in Kenya shows that 7% of households headed by AIDS orphans lack adequate knowledge of agricultural production (FAO 2). Without an experienced farmer to teach the ways of farming a particular plot of land, it is easy to see why there is such a massive shift towards unsustainable farming practices such as monocultures. At first, a monoculture will produce the desired effect, large quantities of food. To an uneducated youth, this would seem like a superior technique; however, an experienced farmer knows the detrimental effects. In the African agricultural sector, there has been little to no modernization. Therefore, farming communities cannot rely on a machine to do their work. It is done by hand using techniques that have been modified and adapted to a particular region over time. The lack of agricultural modernization is a result of the absence of the green revolution in rural Africa (US Senate 6). Agricultural modernization generally increases the overall availability of food and the global food trade. However, according to Garí, this generally does not meet the basic agriculture or nutrition needs of most small farmers (9).

Economic
The AIDS epidemic is not a mere detriment to progress; it prompts a complete structural and systemic change. When a family member is sick or dies, there is an expected economic strain to deal with medical and funeral expenses. However, the economic strain does not end there. For most households in rural Africa, health care costs cannot be met without selling assets, such as animals, bicycles, or farm equipment, or going into debt. This presents two problems related to food production and consumption; a loss of farm equipment means a decrease in farm productivity, and when food cannot be produced on the farm, a loss of material assets mean that food cannot be purchased either. This demonstrates the correlation that times of income insecurity are also times of food insecurity (Barnett and Whiteside 247).

After the death of a productive member of an agricultural household, the family’s focus is on self-sustaining food production rather than rebuilding their asset base (Brown 17). This change in crop production generally involves a switch from cash crops, to easy to grow root crops such as cassava. Although this change often seems to be the only viable option for a family effected by and AIDS related illness or death, it is also important to rebuild economic assets after such a loss. A wide asset base provides opportunities to diversify their money making activities and help to protect a household against further asset loss. Money is becoming increasingly more important in Africa because the overall agricultural production is decreasing but food must still come from some source. This source is most often from overseas; Africa As a result of HIV/AIDS there is an increasing number of families that can neither produce food for profit or for household consumption. requires 14 million more metric tons of grain per year than it produces (Brown 18).

Social
The social structure in Africa has been affected by HIV/AIDS in many ways including a trend towards more female-headed households, orphans, and a mass migration towards cities. However, many of these problems are regionally specific and do not affect all households in the same way. Although some of these issues are beginning to be addressed, the main focus in addressing AIDS issues is on the sick, not the wellbeing of those who are affected by an AIDS related death and not the disease itself.

In many parts of the world, widows and daughters receive smaller portion of a deceased spouse or parent’s property than widowers and sons (Hlanze, Gama and Mondlane 10).