The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? - World ...

Chapter 23: The challenge of HIV/AIDS187needs to be compiled on how aspects ofland and tree ownership can assist peoplesuffering from the effects of HIV/AIDS.Labour managementMost African agriculture depends on manuallabour and there are peaks in labourdemand, for example, for land preparation,planting and harvesting. When sickness,death and funerals occur during thesecritical periods, crop productivity will begreatly affected. Caring for the sick alsodemands time and energy and reducesavailability of labour, especially women’s,for agricultural tasks. In Ethiopia, a studyfound that AIDS-affected households spent50–66 percent less time on agriculture thanhouseholds that were not affected (Baryoh2000). In Tanzania, researchers found thatwomen spent 60 percent less time on agriculturalactivities when their husbandswere ill (Tibaijuka 1997).Different improved fallows agroforestry systemsadvocated by the Centre have differentimplications for total and seasonal labourdemand. Short-duration improved fallows,as developed in western Kenya, require lesstotal labour than the typical two-seasonpattern of maize production, but there isa greater seasonal labour demand duringthe land preparation phase of the long rainproduction season. If labour hiring is not aviable option, then shortage of labour mayimpede adoption (Rommelse 2001). The 2–3-year fallows developed in eastern Zambiatypically entail less labour per hectare andper unit output than the continuous maizesystems (no fertilizer) that they replace. Duringthe first year of tree establishment, thefallows do require extra labour, but thereis quite a wide variation between differentfallow systems. Steve Franzel, ICRAF (personalcommunication) used farm data fromeastern Zambia to calculate the extra labourtime required to establish 0.27 ha plots ofSesbania sesban and Tephrosia vogelii fallows.Since the average farm in this regionhas 1.08 ha of cultivated land, planting 0.27ha to improved fallow each year for 4 yearswould allow most farmers to convert theirfarms to the agroforestry system within 4years. The calculations showed that purestands of S. sesban and T. vogelii require anaverage of 36 and 22 extra labour days duringthe establishment year. If, however, thefallows are intercropped with maize duringthe first year, then only an extra 16 daysfor S. sesban and 3 days for T.vogelii arerequired. Different systems are therefore appropriatefor households at different stagesof AIDS impact. Households that have alreadysuffered significant labour losses maynot be well advised to plant pure standsof S. sesban, but they could still managethe extra labour required to intercrop theirmaize with T. vogelii.Reducing labour peaksA study in eastern Zambia showed that landpreparation, weeding and harvesting accountfor 70 percent of the labour demandassociated with the production of maize(29%)(18%)under improved fallows (Ajayi 2003: seeFigure 4). Land preparation and weeding arethe most demanding, since several essentialactivities have to be carried out over arelatively short time. Any interventions thatreduce labour requirements during thesephases will therefore be attractive.Further analysis showed that in agroforestryfields, farmers spent 27 percent of total labouron land preparation compared to 19percent in non-agroforestry fields (Table 2).However, in the non-agroforestry fields,farmers spent 34 percent of their labourtime on weeding activities compared to26 percent in agroforestry fields. Weedingis time-consuming and must be completedwithin a short time to prevent a poor harvest.Thus, by reducing the proportion oftime allocated to weeding from 34 to 26percent, improved fallows help labourconstrainedhouseholds to have a betterchance of a good yield. However, fallowsentail more labour for land preparation.The trade-off is in favour of fallows becausethe time ‘window’ for land preparation isless critical than that for weeding.Figure 4. Distribution of total labour inputs by type of field operation (% of absolute inputs).Source: Ajayi (2003).(2%) (2%)(3%)(8%)(3%)(23%)(12%)TransportationNursery operationsLand preparationRe-ridgingAgroforestry plantingMaize plantingFertilizer applicationWeedingHarvesting