The paper focuses on the various types and levels of constraints faced by farm-households as a production and reproduction system within a farming system such as time and energy limitations created by HIV/AIDS provoked shortages. The paper highlights the contributions various labour saving technolgies (LSTs) could provide while also stressing the conditions - including gender ones - which have to be met in order to introduce LSTs successfully. LSTs are a partial solution to HIV/AIDS problems, but also represent a challenge to the way agriculture is practiced and to common policies in both agriculture and HIV/AIDS. The focus on LSTs is a fertile field for cooperation between sectors, between public and private institutions, North-South and South-South cooperation."