Small-scale farming and HIV/AIDS in Northern Namibia

This thesis describes small-scale farming in Northern Namibia and estimates the impacts of HIV/AIDS on these small-scale farmers. The aim of this study is to quantify the impacts on farm households that can serve as basis for potential policy interventions for mitigating those impacts. The first part of the thesis describes the results of Farm Economic Household Surveys. The second part analyzes the impacts of HIV/AIDS on agricultural production systems. It is the first time that household demographics data are combined with agricultural data to model the impacts of HIV/AIDS on small-scale farmers. The study uses household level data and regression analysis to estimate the effects of adult mortality and health-related reduced labor supply on farm output. Four storylines and a set of sub-scenarios are defined to estimate the impacts of HIV/AIDS. The storylines are composed of HIV-related illness and AIDS-related deaths of household members by gender and migration status in combination with average household education and age change assumptions. For the worst case scenario, losses of livestock and off-farm income were also applied.