MBABANE, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - MBABANE, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - Squeezed between Swaziland's worst-ever food crisis and the world's highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, people are struggling to survive.

Abdoulaye Balde, Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Swaziland, reported to government officials this week that the signs indicated the worst food crisis in the small kingdom's modern history.

Maize became the favoured Swazi food in the early 19th century, but the upcoming harvest may prove the scantiest, with entire communities producing no crops at all.

In the last few months, Swaziland has suffered delayed rainfall, heavy winds and hailstorms, followed by scorching dry spells. Usually only the dry Middleveld, Lowveld and Lubombo Plateau areas are affected, but this year the entire country has experienced disastrous growing conditions.

"It is a unique situation because it is a national problem this year," said Balde. "In the past, only some parts of the country were affected, mostly the southern and eastern regions."

A crop assessment team from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is canvassing the small homesteads where four out of five Swazis live, either growing crops to supplement the modest wages they earn in towns, or supporting their families entirely with the produce grown on their small plots.

The assessment data, due out early next month, will determine the extent of emergency food relief requirements. At a time of year when full maize storage bins and ripening pumpkins are traditionally celebrated, there is anxiety throughout the country.

"Already, about a quarter of the population receives some form of food assistance, and this is harvest time. As we enter the lean winter and early spring months ahead, when customarily the stored crops are depleted, we can expect more people in need," said Christopher Dlamini of the Swaziland Baphalali Red Cross Society, a major distributor of WFP food aid.

WFP has been supporting about a quarter of Swaziland's 1.1 million people with food assistance since 2002, to improve the nutrition of families affected by drought, poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Northern Hhohho Region: Worst harvest in Amos Ndwandwe's memory

Amos Ndwandwe was born in 1946, when the national population was a quarter of its present number. He remembered the ample harvests of his childhood, interspersed with occasional dry spells. Swaziland's mountainous northern region has usually enjoyed above-average rainfall and was untouched by the last devastating drought in 1992.

"It is different this year; the rains stopped when we needed them the most. I remember when the maize plants were tall enough to start growing tassels, in January. They needed the water to push them to maturity, but there was none for a month, and when it [rain] came back, it was too late," said Ndwandwe.

The traditional leader in his area asked him to assess crops in the community fields, both those cultivated at individual homesteads and the communal fields where food for orphans is grown.

"We have government money [from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis] we were given to buy seeds and fertiliser. We planted just a few weeks ago, when the rains briefly returned. The crop was doing well - it was meant for the children who have no parents and no means of support," he said sadly.

The next task will be a census of households in the area to create a database of food requirements. The National Emergency Relief Unit will be notified, and measures taken to bring assistance.

"No one starves here. We look after one another," said Ndwandwe.

In the enduring humanitarian crisis, food relief has been required continuously for the past 15 years in some parts of the country, but the dreaded word "famine" has been avoided by good communication between communities and relief agencies.

Central Manzini Region: Gogo Nhlabatsi's crops fail

The highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate worldwide - over a third of sexually active Swazi adults are HIV positive - has left a burgeoning population of parentless children. In many instances, grandparents have stepped in to support their orphaned grandchildren.

"The worry was that I could not farm this place, but we managed," said Gogo (Granny) Nhlabatsi, who supports five grandchildren aged below 12 with the produce from a two-hectare plot around her homestead. Most of the maize plants on the plot are dead.

"Nothing; there is nothing," she lamented. "The school break is next week. It would be a time when the little ones help Granny harvest the maize. There is nothing to do this year.

"I am happy we did the work to make these fields bloom a while; other old people could not manage. There were community volunteers to help; the church people paid for my grandchildren's school fees. But none of them could bring the rain."

Eastern Lubombo Region: Thamie Mhlongo, a fisherman's story

If Thamie Mhlongo, 19, were standing in the same spot a year ago, he would be submerged in the water of the dam that supplies his community's needs. The water level has receded by half since January, and thorny weeds now cover the embankment that used to be under water.

"Sometimes you are here all day and you can catch nothing. It is all luck," he said. "We are glad to have this dam; we eat the fish. We used to sell the extra fish at the highway, just there," he said, pointing to the nearby road. "Now we don't have extra fish; we are happy to find fish to eat."

The Ministry of Agriculture and local nongovernmental organisations are encouraging aquaculture to provide rural Swazis with an alternative food supply to maize. However, all the pilot schemes depend on rainfall.

"When the water dried up [earlier this year], we found a whole bus that had been under the water for years," said Mhlongo. "But we are not finding fish."

Southern Shiselweni Region: Charles Maziya used seed money to bury his wife

"HIV/AIDS is worsening the food security situation in Swaziland," Deputy Prime Minister Constance Simelane told an assembly of government and civil society officials this week. "There are fewer able-bodied men and women to plant, weed and harvest, and people living with HIV and AIDS require proper nutrition; their treatment depends on it, but food is harder to come by this year."

Charles Maziya had to make a desperate choice between his children's food security and burying his wife. His dilemma is shared by thousands of families faced with funeral expenses for relatives who succumbed to AIDS, although he does not say she died of the disease.

"I borrowed money that I normally borrow every year for the crop. After my wife's funeral, I was faced with repaying. I did not have the implements to do my farming, but I managed. You can see the plants grew," he said, standing in his maize field.

When the rainfall ended, so did his hope of having a harvest as the maize plants turned prematurely brown before dying. "My field cannot help me repay my loan. Winter is ahead. I am thankful that I am a bricklayer; I find work. Some other farmers, they only have their fields that did nothing this year."

He supports his eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. As a small sign of faith in the future, he has planted avocado trees as a windbreak.

"They will give us fruit to eat; I am planting bananas and mangoes. Because I am a bricklayer, I built a new storage bin that is weatherproof," Maziya told IRIN. Unfortunately, there is nothing to put in this year."

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