HIV/AIDS in Namibia: the impact on the livestock sector

This paper focuses on the specific impact on the Namibian livestock sector, and it suggests strategies for consideration by the sector stakeholders in order to minimize and/or mitigate the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS on livestock. Factors identified include:the quantitative reduction of the household workforce, which occurs when adults fall ill or die, the remaining household members may lack the skills or physical strength to maintain livestock management and production. This has the strongest impact on households which are child-headed or where the majority of the members are children and older people. Mourning and attending funerals are both time- and energy-consuming (it is estimated that extension staff in north-central Namibia spend at least 10% of their time attending funerals). The lost production time may be more than 25% of short critical production periods such as sowing and weedingInheritance systems have a different impact on livestock depending on how socio-cultural factors mediate it. In Oshana, immediate effects on household resources, including livestock, were distinctly different for households where husbands died and those where wives died, because of the matrilineal property inheritance culture, as a result of which there may be a substantial re-distribution of family property following the death of the male spouse. No such distinctions were obvious in the Caprivi data where the inheritance culture is patrilineal.Direct costs associated with sickness and death (with or without HIV/AIDS) are known to range from hospital fees, traditional healers' fees, transport, special food and funeral expenses. With the increase in the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS and related complications, these costs escalate. Findings obtained in Caprivi and Oshana indicate that a common strategy for covering direct costs associated with sickness and death is the sale of livestock followed by the sale of crops. Borrowing and savings are the least commonWidespread sale and slaughter of livestock to support the sick and to provide food for the mourners at funerals jeopardize both the livestock and crop production sub-sector sdue to reduced availability of draught power and manure. When the forced expenses due to HIV/AIDS-associated sicknesses and deaths are met by the sale of livestock, this is generally setting the stage for serious future household food security and malnutrition problems. The loss of draught animal power in areas where integration of crop and livestock is prominent strongly hits the livelihood of rural communities as less draught power results in reduced cultivated areas. The sacrifice or sale of cattle might be regarded as one of the most destructive processes related to HIV/AIDS in the livestock sector.[adapted from author]