Farmers with Aids in Uganda

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

In the nineties HIV/Aids was successfully competed in Uganda. HIV prevalence was pushed back from over 18% to 5,2% by the year 2000. However infections are increasing lately (2008: 6,2%), especially in the rural areas. There, the percentage of infection is as high as 9% and higher in some regions of the country. This has enormous impact on the functioning of agriculture extension organisations and farmers themselves. Agriterra facilitated 2 Ugandese students in the Netherlands to take part in a master programme ‘Aids and rural development’ given by the van Hall - Larenstein Institute. Aim of the training was capacity development and research on the possibilities of mitigating the impact of Aids in rural areas.

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.