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.
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