HIV/AIDS and the Agricultural Sector: Implications for Human Development Policies in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents how the design of agricultural policies and programmes might be modified in order to achieve the objective of human development within the context of increasing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria. HIV/AIDS results in severe reduction in household assets and wealth, and therefore leads to less capital intensive cropping systems and difficulties in transfering knowledge of crop husbandry to the succeeding generation of farmers. The study suggests that the most effective means for agricultural progammes to responde to HIV/AIDS require investing in agricultural research to generate improved technologies, rehabilitating agricultural extension services, increasing access to agricultural inputs, and redressing gender biases in all agricultural programmes.