Addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS on ministries of agriculture: focus on eastern and southern Africa
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This paper examines the relevance of HIV/AIDS for Ministries of Agriculture (MoAs) and their work in sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly in Eastern and Southern Africa. The focus of analysis is smallholder agriculture as this has been affected most severely by the HIV epidemic. The systemic impact of HIV/AIDS and the magnitude of its scale are changing the environment in which MoAs operate, triggering or intensifying a number of structural changes in the smallholder sector in particular, in cluding: long-term changes in farming systems (as household cultivation shifts from cash crops to subsistence crops and from labour-intensive to labour-extensive crops); and changes in the age structure and quality of the agricultural labour force as more elderly people and children assume a greater role in farming. Four areas of HIV/AIDS impact are analysed in detail: (1) MoA staff vulnerability to HIV infection and AIDS impact; (2) the disruption of MoA operations and the erosion of capacity to respond to the challenges being posed by the HIV epidemic; (3) the increased vulnerability of MoA clients to food and livelihood insecurity; (4) the relevance of certain MoA policies, strategies and programmes in view of the conditions being created by HIV/AIDS.