African-Asian Agriculture against AIDS

This report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) details the results of the Consultation on Agriculture, Development, and HIV Reduction, December 11-13 2002, Bangkok, Thailand. This gathering was meant to promote building partnerships not only between AIDS authorities and agricultural authorities but also between Africans and Asians so that they can benefit from the experience of each other in preventing and mitigating the adverse impact of AIDS on agriculture and rural development.

This report states that concrete interventions, based on the expertise and comparative advantage of the agricultural sector in the area of medicinal herbs, indigenous nutritious plants, and labour-saving technologies have been identified as fruitful lines of intervention for the agricultural sector.

"HIV/AIDS is creating a crisis in the rural areas of the countries most severely affected by this disease. In such areas, a significant proportion of the population depends on agriculture for subsistence. Up to now, most of the responses to national HIV epidemics have come from the health sector. However, owing to the centrality of agriculture in the lives of rural populations, people are beginning to see that the agricultural sector has a fundamental role to play in mitigating the impact of the pandemic."