Kwanalu commercial farmers' perceptions of and management responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
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Date
2008
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Abstract
In South Africa commercial agriculture employs approximately 8.5% of the national workforce. Therefore, information about commercial farmers’ perceptions of and management responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic are likely to be of interest to policy makers and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) in the health sector, as well as practitioners in rural development and
commercial agriculture. HIV/AIDS affects businesses such as commercial farms by decreasing
productivity, increasing costs and therefore decreasing overall profitability. Farm business’
responses to the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS may advantage or disadvantage farm workers.
For example, farm workers are highly vulnerable to burden-shifting activities (practices which
reduce the cost of HIV/AIDS to the employer, such as the outsourcing of low-skilled jobs).
However, farm businesses may also play a substantial role (e.g., by providing formal adult
education or access to clinics) in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in rural commercial farming
areas of KwaZulu-Natal and in South Africa generally.
This study presents an analysis of KwaZulu-Natal commercial farmers’ perceptions of and
management responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This analysis identifies the farm, business
and personal characteristics of the various respondents. It is important to know this information
because it assists in understanding why commercial farmers are responding as they are, which
will in turn assist in future HIV/AIDS policy planning. The analysis is based on a postal census
survey of Kwanalu (KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union) commercial farmer members in April
and May 2007. Results suggest that, on average, Kwanalu members are highly concerned about
the impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses. A majority of respondents perceived HIV/AIDS to
negatively affect the current and future profitability of farming, increase labour absenteeism and
staff turnover rates, and reduce labour productivity. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the
data shows that respondents’ management responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic varied by farm
size and enterprise type, but include paying higher than average wage rates to attract and retain
healthy and productive workers, multi-skilling staff to provide back-up skills, and mechanisation
to defer costs of HIV/AIDS. Respondents tended to believe that effective HIV/AIDS treatment
and prevention programmes require an integrated approach between government, employers and
employees. Two response indexes were calculated: (1) ranking by adopters only (only those who use a
certain response are included) and (2) ranking by all respondents (a response is not used by a
respondent automatically scores zero). The response indexes showed that resource-intensive
HIV/AIDS services such as provision of antiretrovirals (ARVs) and nutritional supplements are
ranked high by actual adopters, but relatively low overall (as only a small proportion of
respondents are adopting these strategies) in the ranking by all respondents. Burden-shifting
practices (e.g. mechanisation) are ranked relatively high in both rankings, indicating that
respondents rate them as important in managing HIV/AIDS, and that many respondents are
utilising them. Relatively inexpensive HIV/AIDS services (e.g. informal communication) are
ranked low by actual adopters but high on the overall index as many respondents are using them
(but doubt their effectiveness).
A linear regression analysis was conducted on principal components from the response indexes to
identify characteristics of “high” and “low” responders and of those who utilise burden shifting
activities or HIV/AIDS services. The characteristics of “high” responders are that they perceive
HIV/AIDS to impact on costs; they employ a high proportion of skilled labour; and they have
high turnovers and high debt servicing obligations. Responders who employ large amounts of
labour (particularly permanent labour); who perceive HIV/AIDS as the responsibility of the
employer; who are older and more experienced; and who have a relatively high debt: asset ratio
tend to use HIV/AIDS services to manage the impacts of HIV/AIDS. Many respondents already
play an important but inexpensive role in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment through
encouraging voluntary HIV testing and providing staff with information and transport to clinics.
Policy makers should take this into consideration when formulating HIV/AIDS policies to
combat the pandemic.
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Keywords
Farm management--KwaZulu-Natal., Farmers--KwaZulu-Natal., Agriculture--Economic aspects--KwaZulu-Natal., Agriculture--Social aspects--KwaZulu-Natal., Agricultural labourers--KwaZulu-Natal., AIDS (Disease)--KwaZulu-Natal., HIV infections--KwaZulu-Natal., Theses--Agricultural economics.