[pronut-hiv] Zimbabwe: Farming Needs New Measures Against Aids - Govt

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Zimbabwe: Farming Needs New Measures Against Aids - Govt

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 
March 15, 2006 
Johannesburg 

Southern Africa needs new measures to combat the impact of HIV/AIDS on
agriculture and food security, Zimbabwean Agriculture Deputy Minister,
Sylvester Nguni has said.

Nguni told the Southern and Eastern Regional Agro-forestry Steering
Committee in the capital, Harare, that the pandemic was decimating
entire farming communities, and cited cases where children were unable
to tend fields after both parents or guardians had died from
AIDS-related illnesses.

The official Herald newspaper quoted Nguni as saying, "AIDS contributed
to as much as 50 percent decline in agricultural productivity in some
communal areas of the country."

Against this background, Nguni recommended that families resort to
other, simpler methods of farming, such as planting crops or plants that
were easy to manage.