SOUTHERN AFRICA: New approaches needed to food security

The impact of HIV/AIDS on food security in Southern Africa is now well recognised. The critical question is what can be done to halt the slide into poverty by affected households, a report released on Wednesday by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said. "Even in situations where the maize harvest is quite good, as it appears to be this season at the regional level, the fact that we have such high (HIV) infection rates requires more livelihood support interventions than otherwise would be the case. Good [cereal] production may not be enough to sustain people as it would have been 10 years ago," Neil Marsland, one of the authors of the report, told IRIN.