Agriculture in Madagascar

The traditional slash-and-burn agriculture (tavy) together with population growth put increasing pressure on the native and very diverse flora of Madagascar.

[1] Agriculture in Madagascar is heavily influenced by the island's rainfall, which is generally abundant on the whole East coast, decreases sharply on the highlands, and falls to less than 500 mm per year in the South and South-West.

[7] Rice is the staple food, covering 1.34 million hectares throughout the country – with the exception of some semi-arid areas in the South and in the South-West – under both rain-fed and irrigated systems.

The main cash crops are cotton, vanilla, coffee, litchi, pepper, tobacco, groundnut, sugar cane, sisal, clove and ylang-ylang.

In the forested areas of the eastern coast, the Betsimisaraka and Tanala peoples also practice irrigated rice culture where possible.

Government assistance is offered to those cultivators who prepare rice paddies instead, and those practicing tavy are fined or, in extreme cases, imprisoned.

The crop cycle for tavy is shorter than for irrigated rice, and generations of experience have taught that it is one of the few forms of insurance against the droughts that occur about every three years.

In the Antandroy and some Mahafaly areas, however, the main staples of subsistence--cassava, corn, beans, and sorghum—are also grown around the villages in permanent fields enclosed by hedges.

The crops are sown after the last rising of the waters during the rainy seasons, and after the harvest fresh alluvial deposits naturally replenish the soil.

They construct rice paddies on narrow terraces ascending the sides of steep valleys in the southern portion of the central highlands, creating an intricate landscape reminiscent of Indonesia.

Both on the highlands and on the coasts, many farmers use fishing as a complement to agriculture and livestock, but it remains characterized by the use of rudimentary tools and materials and inadequate conservation.

There is also a good potential for the development of shrimps and prawns rising and for freshwater aquaculture (mainly for common carp and tilapia) in paddy fields, ponds and cages.

The breeding of fish in rice fields, however, requires sophisticated water control and a strong guard against dynamiting, poisoning, and poaching, which remain chronic problems.

Bush fires and illegal logging further exacerbate the loss of forest areas, which is estimated at the rate of 330,000 hectares (820,000 acres) per year.

The evolution of rice production—the main staple food and the dominant crop—offers insight into some problems associated with agricultural production that were compounded by the Ratsiraka years.

The inefficient system of agricultural supply and marketing, which since 1972 increasingly had been placed under direct state control, was a major factor inhibiting more efficient and expanded rice production.

The decreasing commercialization of rice and other commodities continued, however, suggesting that transportation bottlenecks and producer prices were undermining official distribution channels.

To promote domestic production and reduce foreign imports of rice, the Ratsiraka regime enacted a series of structural adjustment reforms during the 1980s.

These included the removal of government subsidies on the consumer purchase price of rice in 1984 and the disbanding of the state marketing monopoly controlled by SINPA in 1985.

In addition, the southern tip of Madagascar suffered from severe drought in late 1993, resulting in emergency assistance to 1 million people from the United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP).

Indonesia, the primary importer of Malagasy cloves, temporarily halted purchases in 1983 as a result of sufficient domestic production, and left Madagascar with a huge surplus.

As with other export crops that have experienced fluctuations over the decades, vanilla, which had seen a resurgence in the years prior, has encountered severe challenges during the 2024 growing season.

The significant damage inflicted by torrential rains and gale-force winds has not only flooded fields but also led to widespread loss of vanilla pods.

Early estimates indicate a catastrophic reduction in yield, forecasting a harvest that might dip to a mere 1,000 tons—a figure that represents only about fifty percent of typical annual production levels.

This current pricing is a stark contrast to the highs of $250 per kilogram observed merely two years ago, a discrepancy attributed to lingering effects of past oversupply.

This production is making up for lost revenues and potential structural decline within the ailing coffee, vanilla, and clove trade.

Beef exports in the early 1990s decreased because of poor government marketing practices, rundown slaughtering facilities, and inadequate veterinary services.

These practises have taken perhaps the greatest toll on land fertility since the end of French rule, mainly due to population growth pressures.

Further protection of Madagascar's forests would assist in preservation of these diverse ecosystems, which have a very high ratio of endemic organisms to total species.

A switch to slash-and-char would considerably advance preservation, while the ensuing biochar would also greatly benefit the soil if returned to it while mixed with compostable biomass such as crop residues.