THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF AGROFORESTRY PRACTICING TO HIV AND AIDS AFFECTED HOUSEHOLDS

Kingsley Mikwamba

Abstract


HIV and AIDS continue to impact negatively on rural livelihoods. Across the globe households have to cope with loss of labour through nursing the sick and worse still through death. Response to the scourge has ranged from prevention, care and support, to impact mitigation amongst many other strategies. Agroforestry has been an ancient practice dealing with soil fertility improvement. The benefits of agroforestry practicing have been documented since time immemorial. In Malawi agroforestry has been practiced with the support of International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) since the mid-90s. The Malawi government has responded to HIV and AIDS with various interventions within agriculture sector. However, more funding for HIV and AIDS programs never went to impact mitigation in the agriculture sector. The question that remained unanswered was what other mitigation strategies can be used within the agriculture sector to mitigate HIV and AIDS. In this study, the researcher tried to find out whether the practicing of agroforestry could also mean that the households practicing agroforestry derived finance from the practicing. The study was carried out in Kasungu District in Central Malawi. Through a survey design data was collected using questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with various stakeholders. The findings of the study showed that households affected by HIV and AIDS practicing agroforestry had significantly more financial resources as compared to households that were affected by HIV and AIDS but did not practice agroforestry. There were four main factors that were found to significantly explain the source of finance of the households and these were; the size of the household, the amount of land under cultivation, the practicing of agroforestry and the location (proximity to township). The results suggest that agroforestry is providing a good mitigation strategy for households affected by HIV and AIDS. The findings of the study therefore imply that there is need to engage in advocacy so that agroforestry is considered as a mitigation factor for households affected by HIV and AIDS. While channeling funds to different aspects of HIV and AIDS programs, it is important to consider scaling up agroforestry practices..


Keywords


Agroforestry, financial benefits, HIV & AIDS.

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Copyright (c) 2014 Kingsley Mikwamba

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