(Page 3 or 3)
Since local diets are based largely on carbohydrates, with little are becoming more and more concerned with meeting export quotas and less and less with feeding their own populations. Although most agricultural producers in the region are small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmers, it is the large, estate-based commercial planters who effectively provide food for most of the nonagricultural population. As a result, export decisions reached in African (and Western) capitals have the potential to dramatically reduce the availability of food to local populations. All through the severe food shortages of the last decade, most SADC states have continued to export a considerable fraction of their annual crop else, poorer families often suffer from vitamin and mineral defi- ciencies. “Hidden hunger,” or micronutrient malnutrition, has left many children and adults physically and mentally stunted, even though they seem to have consumed adequate total amounts of food.
Even the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which would seem to be a separate problem, is intertwined with the region’s malnutrition troubles. It’s no secret that southern Africa has the largest infected population in the world: HIV afflicts 20% of all adults in the region. Even worse, we generally observe the highest AIDS rates among the most productive and economically-active parts of society, targeting exactly the kind of laborers required for capital-intensive farming. AIDS exacts a crushing toll on the agricultural labor force, leading to a significant drop in agricultural yields. AIDS also disrupts the transfer of agricultural knowledge between generations, allowing ineffective farming practices to creep up that culminate in less fertile soils and poorer harvests. Although indirect, the correlation between AIDS and malnutrition is clear. A vicious cycle of poverty and disease forms: not only does malnutrition decrease immunity to AIDS, it also goes hand-in-hand with the kind of poverty that gives rise to promiscuous behavior and to the sexual exploitation of vulnerable groups.
The roots of food insecurity in southern Africa are as numerous and diverse as the number of solutions that have been proposed to address it. So far, however, success has been elusive. The primary obstacle to food security, one might argue, is the unequal distribution of resources that leaves so many Africans in poverty. Only a more equitable division of the region’s riches will help to ease poverty and resolve the food crisis. In all likelihood, international intervention will be necessary to ensure that programs are initiated to provide food for disadvantaged communities, as well as to educate citizens about the components of a balanced diet. The southern African governments will also have to step in to enforce environmentally-friendly farming practices, which attenuate the effects of climate change. Educating farmers about effective cropping systems could also significantly increase soil fertility and ensure better harvests. In order to be successful, however, all of these policies will need to be backed by strong economic reforms and better regional and international coordination.
Countless pages have been written stressing the importance of fighting the global spread of AIDS, and while some progress has been made, the disease is spreading much faster than our prevention campaigns. Southern Africa’s food insecurity crisis seems similarly intractable: at the moment, the strength of the foe far surpasses the the world’s collective will to stop it.
Takudzwa Shumba is a Junior majoring in Biology.