Small farmers to be incorporated into fight against HIV/AIDS

Preparations are underway for small farmers to be incorporated into the national struggle against HIV/AIDS, a local no-governmental organisation , the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Lesotho, announced on December 7. 

is currently making preparations to develop a small farmers strategic paper on HIV/AIDS, aimed at incorporating small farmers in the national struggle against HIV/AIDS. PELUM coordinator, Mr. Moshe Ts'ehlo told the Lesotho News Agency that preparations were being made to  develop a small farmers strategic paper on HIV/AIDS after the realisation that to date HIV/AIDS programmes do not seem to consider small farmers as important in the fight against the scourge. The strategic paper would outline clear programmes that mainstream farmers and HIV/AIDS, he said PELUM hopes to hold consultations with small farmers throughout the country, to get their inputs on the strategic paper, so that it is able to cover farmers' views on the fight against HIV/AIDS. The NGO has also come to realise that AIDS mainly affects and infects the poor, who do not have access to basic information on the disease, let alone the very expensive antiretroviral drugs needed.

Coordinators from the sub-Saharan African region agreed at a recent meeting in Uganda to write comprehensive proposals requesting that small farmers be incorporated in national programmes that focus on HIV/AIDS, Mr. Ts'ehlo said.

The organisation was established at regional level in 1996 and  became operational in Lesotho in 2001.  The PELUM region is a composite of Eastern and Southern countries namely Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

07 January 2004