Aids Poses Threat to Food Security
HIV and AIDS are expected to kill 16 million farmworkers in southern Africa by 2010, with severe implications for agricultural production and food security.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says between 60 and 80 per cent of AIDS-related deaths are due to malnutrition.

James Morris, United Nations envoy for humanitarian needs in southern Africa, says the region's food production capability will decline.

"The pandemic is threatening the future of nations and a bold approach is needed to address the crisis of devastating illness and drought-afflicted agriculture," Morris said in a message on World AIDS Day last week.

Scott Drimie, of the Human Sciences Research Council, said food security should be seen in context with HIV and AIDS.

"The challenge is to develop food security interventions and farming practices that adapt to the reality of HIV-AIDS affected environments," he said.

In Windhoek, the Namibian AIDS Law Unit's Michaela Clayton said poverty could not be seen in isolation either, and needed to be factored into the HIV and AIDS and food security debate.

"Poor people are people made poor by inequitable socio-economic structures," she said.

Clayton said HIV and AIDS strategies must alleviate poverty, which affected the agricultural production capacity of communities most at risk of the disease