Madagascar is still not making the most of its land

On coins, on the frescoes of the presidential palace, in the fields at all seasons and in all weathers, farmers take centre stage. They grow mainly rice (there are more than 1,000 varieties in the country), maize and manioc, but also cash crops such as vanilla, litchi, cloves, cocoa, coffee and pink berries. 83.2% of Madagascar’s households are farmers, out of a total population of 25.7 million, according to the 2018 general population census. 

But for several decades now, Madagascar has found itself in a paradox: despite having an agricultural population, vast fertile land and a providential climate, the country is not self-sufficient. Worse still, chronic malnutrition affects almost one child in two, according to the World Bank. And in some years, such as 1991 and 2020, the South has even experienced deadly famines.

Against a backdrop of strong demographic growth, around 2.5% per year according to the World Bank, the country is suffering from low yields. Cassava yields around 7 tonnes per hectare, while elsewhere in the world yields are easily double that, or even more (according to the FAO). Rice yields between 2.45 and 2.7 tonnes per hectare, compared with a global average of 4.6 tonnes (according to a study by PRéRAD, a research platform affiliated to CIRAD, in 2023). 

These low yields are primarily due to low production capital. “Farm machinery is very rare and tends to be owned by large farmers, who are extremely few in number and often concentrated in high value-added sectors,” explains Vincent Garruchet, one of the authors of the PRéRAD study. For millions of Madagascans, even a simple plough pulled by zebus is an unaffordable investment.

The small size of the plots, less than a hectare on average, also hampers economies of scale, but is not necessarily an obstacle to mechanisation. “In Asia, and particularly in Japan, on small plots, we see ‘small-scale motorisation’ such as modest-sized tractors and power tillers, which, combined with conventional intensification, enable yields three or four times higher than in Madagascar,” notes Pierre-Marie Bosc, another author of the study coordinated by PRéRAD and a CIRAD researcher on several continents.

Increasing cassava yields is one of the battles being fought by Houssen Safy, an entrepreneur from the Tuléar region in south-west Madagascar. He has set up Malakass, a unit that processes and sells high-quality cassava flour from local production. “To increase farmers’ productivity, we need to train them, encourage them to form cooperatives, find the right varieties,” says the entrepreneur. “I’m counting on subsidies because I can’t fully integrate this support into my business model. Malakass employs 15 permanent staff and around twenty day labourers, and buys the produce of around fifty families, or more than 300 people. Each day, the plant has the capacity to process 2 tonnes of cassava, producing 400 kilograms of flour, which is sold locally or exported to Mauritius.”

Jaona Sitraka Razafindrabe, head of communications for the Programme for Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Agro-industry (Pejaa), financed by the African Development Bank, adds: “Our young people are doing well in fruit and spice processing. The teams have trained 409 ‘agripreneurs’, graduates from all sectors aged between 18 and 35, who can access financing of up to $10,000. The first phase, running until December 2022, generated 640 permanent jobs. Today, ‘80% of the young people are still working’, according to the manager’s estimate. This is a sign that agriculture offers scope for budding businesses. 

“The biggest problem is land: not everyone owns a plot of land,” laments Razafindrabe. It is a national issue. Among the 83.2% of farming households, “most of their land is privately owned and not titled”, confirms Vincent Garruchet. “This widespread insecurity of land tenure is an additional factor holding back investment in productive capital.”

Similarly, the poor distribution of wealth is not conducive to capital growth either. “In the vast majority of cases, collectors benefit from a favourable balance of power to impose particularly low purchase prices on producers,” argues Garruchet. In extreme cases, some large buyers go so far as to block road repairs in order to keep a region landlocked and under control. On the other hand, “the farming world is fragmented, with few cooperatives and little culture of lobbying”, notes Garruchet. 

Political will could reverse this trend. “Madagascar may have been too closed at one point, in the 1980s, but then it was too open to the world market,” says Pierre-Marie Bosc. “Many countries, such as China, the USA and Japan, do not shy away when it comes to protecting or supporting their agriculture.” There would be no need to turn society upside down. “Thailand is the world’s leading producer of natural rubber from rubber trees, and its farmers are ‘in direct contact’ with world prices,” notes Bosc. Yet 99% of production takes place on family farms.