Firstly, as a result of the land shortage that exists in some parts of the country and the social stigma that continues to be associated with HIV/AIDS, those known or perceived to be affected by HIV/AIDS (and therefore whose ability to make productive use of land is in question), are at risk of being denied access to land by their community members and leaders.

Inheritance systems operating in Malawi are varied and somewhat complex in their operation. At the same time the issue of inheritance has a significant bearing on certain people’s ability to access and retain land, particularly women and children. In the event of death, there are frequently inheritance issues that emerge. Frequently, widows living under patrilineal systems of inheritance as well as under the Chikamwini system of matrilineal inheritance (and to a lesser degree, widowers living in matrilineal societies), are denied continued access to the matrimonial land holdings that they enjoyed prior to the death of their spouse, leading to their disputed dispossession of such land. In the same way, HIV/AIDS has serious implications for orphans’ access to the landholdings that they should inherit. Invariably community management of such land is the source of disputes.

In spite of the existence of various pieces of legal instruments that outlaw customs, practices and laws that discriminate against women (for instance by depriving them of property that is rightfully theirs) the dispossession of widows and orphans of property (including land) is becoming more prevalent with the increased frequency of death as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gains that are made under some legal provisions are sometimes reversed by other provisions. For instance, the National Land Policy which recognises women as a marginalised group nonetheless makes reference to catering for people with the “ability and resources” to make productive and sustainable use of land. This clearly excludes women. There is need therefore for policies to be cross-referenced in order for the country to have a clear stand with respect to the land rights on women.

HIV/AIDS also has unexpected opportunities for increased access to land for some. This is so in cases of custodianship over land that is due to an under-aged orphan(s). Older relatives in such positions, such as siblings of the deceased parents, find themselves with access to additional land, possibly for many years before having to relinquish such land.

In the early stages of illness there is little impact as those who are affected are still able to work. However, as illness progresses the periods of incapacitation (and the requirement for care) increase as does the need to visit medical provision centres. At the same time, other family members spend increasing amounts of time caring for the ill person and less on livelihood activities.

In this way illness associated with HIV/AIDS reduces the amount and quality of attention, time and energy available to both the infected individual and their caregivers (usually their family), for productive use of land. The financial burden of recurrent illness associated with HIV/AIDS also reduces the level of resources available for inputs required for the productive use of land.

The above-mentioned effects of HIV/AIDS on land use patterns at household level manifest themselves differently under different conditions. In areas of high land pressure members of extended families are forced to share the same piece of land. In effect, there exists a high labour to land ratio. Under these conditions prolonged illness of one or several members of a family has little effect on land use.

In areas where individual families have their own distinct landholdings (and the land to labour ratio is much less) the effects of long illness associated with HIV/AIDS on land use are more apparent. In the absence of collective resources and effort, the destabilizing impact of recurrent illness is experienced in full. Hence there is greater likelihood of cultivation activities being disrupted. Some indicators of this disruption include planting (weeding etc.) late, only managing to utilize some of the land available, failing to weed, apply fertilizer etc or, in extreme cases, failing to plant (weed, etc.) at all.

Affected households gradually reduce the amount of land under labour or land under input intensive crops, or those requiring relatively high management or expertise (such as tobacco). Such households focus more on crops that require low labour input, fewer inputs and less expertise.

Functionality is another consideration. Households that are seriously affected by long, recurrent illness show a tendency towards crops that have multi-functional functions, e.g. cassava. As illness progresses and the activities of the household gradually become more and more limited and focused on the requirements of the illness, affected households tend to prefer food crops over cash crops.

For instance where the traditional crop of that household becomes impractical, a more convenient crop is adopted.¹⁵ With respect to access, the clearest example effort to ensure continuity is observed among women who generally do not have primary access rights¹⁶ , and whose secondary rights tend to be insecure. Many such women lose their rights to matrimonial land upon the death (HIV/AIDS related or otherwise) of their spouses. Women are found to employ a range of strategies to ensure that they continue to have access to some land. Such strategies include remarriage (to gain access to a new piece of land); involuntary celibacy i.e. never re-marry (to secure the permission of in-laws to continue to have access to part of late spouse’s land) and the acceptance of the practice of wife inheritance¹⁷ (to remain on matrimonial land through a relationship with the late spouse’s brother). These responses are examples of cultural practices that potentially increase the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Long illness and death of young to middle-aged adults that characterises the HIV/AIDS epidemic has implications on the availability of adult labour for agricultural activity. A common response to this limitation has been the progressive use of minors to satisfy the shortfall, i.e. children are gradually given greater and greater responsibility to provide agricultural labour. In so doing, children of school going age fulfil functions that require progressively more responsibility under conditions of decreasing supervision. A common consequence is that of less efficient and less productive agricultural practice; the land is often used less productively. This also means that children are often removed from school, undermining their education and future skills base.

In terms of utilization of land, common responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS include the temporary relinquishing of part of the landholdings in the possession of those affected. Relinquishing involves allowing a relative to use the landholding for a period of time or renting out the land. In this way the land continues to contribute to the livelihood of the landholder, even though the landholder is unable to cultivate the land. Relinquishing the authority to make decisions regarding the use of land also allows the continued use of land once the primary decision-maker is unable to do so. As a result of the combination of these responses as well as the pressure for agricultural land and the high labour to land ratio that exists in many instances, land is rarely left fallow. Even then, this would be short term.

One of the few situations under which land would be left fallow for successive seasons would be if all rural-based members of the family in question had died, or if the parents had died and children had moved out to live elsewhere. It is significant though that in many instances of temporarily relinquished land, efforts to regain control of the land are characterized by contestation that results in conflict.

Long illness and death is primarily among the middle aged although it occurs in all age groups. For this reason, financial burden of such illness and death, are felt, in the first instance, by the middle-aged. This age group feels the financial impact of long illness at an earlier stage of illness than other groups. This age group tended to respond to the demands of the initial stages of illness out of its own resources. In many cases, the middle-aged continue to apply their own resources in response the demands associated with the earlier phases of the chronic stage of illness. The general trend of spending in response to the medical requirements progressed as follows:

• use of own cash resources
• sale of household food reserves for cash
• use of business stocks and capital
• sale personal assets (blankets, shoes, individual items of clothing)
• sale of household assets (radio, bicycle)

Related to the issue of relinquishing control over land is that of distress land sales. Renting out of land is a response or strategy that is employed when landholders perceive their distress to be short term. Where there has been prolonged distress, wearing down all other resources available and then followed by one or multiple deaths or where the economic distress is perceived to be deep or long term in the absence of other economic resources, the sale of land is observed as a response. Land sales can be entered into with or without the knowledge and approval of the family of the seller with the latter being the more distressful of the two situations. In fact, serious illness and death of authority figures in families makes families vulnerable to “unauthorized” land sales by irresponsible families members.

The study observed that HIV/AIDS has the potential to increase the extent of the operation of land markets. This is primarily the result of households trying to derive benefits from their landholdings at a time when the landholding family may not be in a position to cultivate the land itself.

The implications of HIV/AIDS for the food security of affected households are considerable. HIV/AIDS clusters in a family. In many households HIV/AIDS does not just attack one person, but often more than one. In this way HIV/AIDS causes progressive and worsening deterioration in the livelihood status of households experiencing multiple illnesses and deaths. Rural households that are badly affected by HIV/AIDS and which, as a consequence, are not able to make fully productive use of their land tend to be food insecure. In fact, food insecurity is recognised as one of the main impacts of HIV/AIDS. Households that are better resourced prior to the onset of illness tend to cope better with the effects of HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS also causes a reduction in the components of the livelihood strategy of people. It does so by disrupting access to waged labour, the operation of small scale business enterprises, access to paid labour, the availability of assets that can be liquidated for cash and by reducing the number of city-based family members who are able to make remittances (either through their death or their inability to work). In so doing, HIV/AIDS increases the reliance of families on a gradually narrow livelihood resource base, and ultimately on land as the only source of their livelihood. By narrowing the livelihood resource base of affected families, HIV/AIDS makes such families less food secure.

Related to the issue of a shrinking livelihood resource and increased reliance on land is the issue of urban-rural migration. There is a strong tendency for city-based people to return to their rural homes when they enter into the chronic phase of HIV/AIDS related illness. The broader implications of this require further investigation however, it is likely that in the long-term, this trend and the strain that it will bring on rural resources will become unsustainable.

Related to the issue of responses to the impacts of HIV/AIDS is that of systems of support available to those who are affected by HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is perhaps the most formidable challenge that has confronted Malawian society in recent history. Many of the support systems (e.g. cultivating the field of ill community members) previously designed to assist disadvantaged members of rural society were based on an attitude of social cohesion which has now been eroded significantly and replaced, for the most part, by an attitude of individualism and self-sufficiency.

As a result, many of the systems of support that were previously in operation no longer function effectively, and certainly not to the extent that they could be effective in meeting the multitude of needs resulting from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The break-down of community support systems is certainly true of land related activity. Previous mechanisms that assisted struggling members of the community to make better use of their land are no longer in operation. In addition, community support initiatives that made use of available land resources to assist those in need (e.g. collective, voluntary cultivation for purposes of producing community reserves) are no longer in operation.

On the other hand support systems that have been initiated more recently (e.g. by central and local government or by churches) have not developed to the extent that they can make a significant contribution to the prevailing needs. As a result, a significant gap exists with respect to the provision of adequate and consistent support in general to families badly affected by HIV/AIDS. The situation is even less optimistic with respect to support specific to land use. No such efforts were observed.

15. N.B. Although crop preferences may alter, the actual land use category (i.e. grazing, cultivation etc.) tends to remain the same.
16. except in matrilineal areas
17. more prevalent among older women in patrilineal communities