JOHANNESBURG, 12 May (IRIN) - HIV/AIDS,
more than drought conditions, has the potential for worsening Swaziland's
continuing food crisis, a joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission
by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
and the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
"HIV/AIDS is overshadowing everything,"
said Anthony Pope, WFP/FAO mission's agronomist.
Swaziland's adult HIV infection rate is estimated to be 38.6 percent.
The mission concluded its work at the weekend, collecting data for analysis at the organisations' headquarters in Rome, where findings are expected to be released at the end of the month.
With nearly 40 percent of adult Swazis infected by the HI virus and rural areas particularly hard hit by the epidemic, AIDS is affecting the harvesting of this year's crop.
"The labour pool is not unlimited," Pope told IRIN.
"It is very difficult for a granny - [with] her deceased sons' and daughters' little children to look after - to harvest a field. And the neighbours may not be able to help," said Bongiwe Dlamini, an extension officer with the Ministry of Agriculture.
"The drought's effect is made worse because of AIDS. It is also devastating traditional Swazi life, because before we were all able to help one another in the fields," said Chief Malunge of Nyangeni.
Malunge described the maize crops of his chieftaincy as adequate. His area is located in the nation's middleveld that saw fair rains this summer.
"The lowveld [the region worst hit by food shortages] had no rains again this year. The highveld [mountainous area, including Mbabane] had normal rains," said Dr Arid Hussein, an economist with the FAO/WFP mission.
"But conditions change almost from kilometre to kilometre. Swaziland has many climatic areas," Hussein added.
Swaziland's high unemployment rate does not translate into an available pool of labour to harvest the crops of small-scale farmers when adults are incapacitated by HIV/AIDS.
"When a factory's workforce is compromised, there are always other people available who seek wages. But peasant farmers pay no wages, and their crops are for family consumption," said Minister of Enterprise and Employment Lutfo Dlamini.
FAO/WFP mission specialists spent last week travelling the length and breadth of the country, examining fields, looking into maize storage bins, and assessing the financial ability of government and private companies to import food when anticipated shortages come -- or rather, as this year's food shortages continue into next year.
Government invited the mission into Swaziland and will base its appeal to the international community for food aid on the resulting data.
Presently, about one-third of the population relies on WFP food aid to stay alive. Ninety percent of this aid, mostly in the form of grain and cooking oil, originates in the United States.
Most aid recipients reside in the drought-prone eastern lowveld near the Mozambican and South African borders.
However, food is also distributed to informal settlements on the periphery of urban areas and impoverished township slums.
A lack of irrigation is another factor impacting on the ability of farming households to sustain themselves.
Major irrigation projects did not come into operation this year as expected, partly because of a lack of water from their source, the new Maguga Dam in northwest Swaziland. Currently, the dam is only 25 percent full and this level is expected to diminish significantly before new summer rains replenish it in September or October, Raphael Sangweni, chief hydrologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources, told IRIN.
However, Maguga irrigation water is almost completely committed to large-scale agricultural enterprises and farmers' cooperatives that are geared to export. Government desires the tax revenue, hard currency, and balance of payment benefits associated with agricultural exports.
Sugar, Swaziland's chief export, is the primary product that will receive irrigation water from the Maguga and the upcoming Lower Usuthu Irrigation Project. The policy has drawn criticism from MPs and developmental NGOs who wish to see water resources used to boost Swaziland's food stocks.
"The food security problem is now an annual crisis. Good rains are the exception and not the rule in the lowveld. If we are blessed with water for irrigation, we must use it to feed ourselves. Swaziland needs to become self-sufficient in food production," said MP Nthuthuko Dlamini.
The Swaziland Meteorological Service is monitoring winter weather patterns to advise farmers on early-spring planting, in the hope of replenishing depleted food stocks if good rains seem ready to return.
[ENDS]
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