Farmers with Aids in Uganda

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Adapted agriculture strategies
Caleb Gumisiriza is one of the Ugandese who graduated for the master programme. He works for the UNFFE  where he is in charge of advocacy and lobbying at national level. Caleb: “There is a great need for all organisations  involved in rural development to become aware of the impact of Aids on their work and on their beneficiaries. HIV/Aids must be mainstreamed in their work.”
For example in farmer families where both parents died, you deal with children. This asks of course a completely other approach than usual.
At households with sick people you cannot promote the usual technologies. Labor-intensive crops are for example not appropriate. There is a need for crops that mature fast and don't need intensive weeding. Children must go to school and therefore they cannot hood cattle. Therefore there other livestock are more appropriate and should be promoted.

Aids suppression
Many, often highly trained people in agriculture- and government organisations have died due to aids. Also many have been infected and are frequently absent of work because of sickness. Therefore it is necessary to protect staff from infection and help the already infected staff to cope with the situation so that they can continue to work normally. Although Uganda has been successful in the suppression of Aids, a lot still has to be done, especially to deal with Aids from development perspective.