$Unique_ID{COW02284} $Pretitle{354D} $Title{Madagascar Chapter 3B. Traditional Agriculture} $Subtitle{} $Author{Frederica M. Bunge} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{rice production agricultural development tons areas percent cattle government area} $Date{19} $Log{} Country: Madagascar Book: Indian Ocean Countries, An Area Study: Madagascar Author: Frederica M. Bunge Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 19 Chapter 3B. Traditional Agriculture Traditional farming methods varied from one ethnic group or location to the other, according to population density, climate, water supply, and soil. The most intensive form of cultivation was practiced among the Betsileo and Merina groups of the Central Highlands, where population densities were the highest. At the other extreme were the extensive slash-and-burn methods of brush clearing and shifting cultivation in the south and east. The Betsileo were probably the most efficient traditional rice farmers. Their rice paddies were constructed on narrow terraces ascending the sides of steep valleys in the southern portion of the Central Highlands, creating an intricate man-made landscape reminiscent of Indonesia or the Philippines. The irrigation systems utilized all available water, which flowed through narrow canals for considerable distances. Some of the rice paddies covered no more than a few square meters. Only those surfaces that could not be irrigated were planted to dryland crops. In parts of the Central Highlands two rice crops a year could be grown, but not on the same plot. The Betsileo used a variety of local species that could be sown at different times, employing irrigation to grow some varieties in the dry season and waiting for the rainy season to plant others. The fields surrounding the typical Betsileo village often represented a checkerboard of tiny plots in different stages of the crop cycle. The cultivation cycle began with the repair of irrigation and drainage channels and plowing, which was performed with the long-handled spade or hoe. Manure or fertilizer was then spread over the field. If the supply of manure or artificial fertilizer was limited, only the seedbeds would be fertilized. After fertilizing, groups of neighbors and kin would join in a festive trampling of the fields, utilizing cattle if available. Occasionally trampling would take the place of plowing altogether. If the rice was to be sown broadcast, it might be done on the same day as trampling. In the more advanced areas, the seedlings were raised in protected seedbeds and transplanted a day later. Planting was the task of the women. Trampling and sowing required the largest number of people. The minimal labor force during the crop cycle was about five people-two adult men, a boy to tend the cattle, one adult woman, and a girl for household tasks and light farm work. A larger household unit might find it necessary to subdivide land; a smaller unit would have to attract kin to the household. After the transplanting, little was done until harvest, which required ten to fifteen able-bodied men using straight sickles or serrated knives. Threshing was done against a stone or with a flail by a group of six to ten men and women; elsewhere cattle were driven around the threshing floor to separate rice from the straw. Rice-farming techniques among the Merina resembled those of the Betsileo but were usually less advanced and intensive. The Merina territory included some areas where land was more plentiful, and there were broader valleys permitting less laborious means of irrigation and terracing. Although rice was still the dominant crop, more dryland species were grown than in the Betsileo country, and greater use was made of the hillsides and grasslands. In the forested areas of the eastern coast, the Betsimisaraka and Tanala peoples also practiced irrigated rice culture where possible, as did groups of Betsileo immigrants. The dominant form of land use, however, was shifting cultivation by the slash-and-burn method, known as tavy. The smaller trees and brush were cut down and left to dry, then burned just before the rainy season. The cleared area was usually planted with mountain rice and maize. After two or three years of cultivation, the fields were left fallow and were gradually covered by a secondary vegetation known as savoka. After ten or twenty years, the area might be cultivated again. Because the slash-and-burn method destroyed the forests, other vegetation cover, and promoted erosion, it has been made illegal. Government assistance was given to those cultivators who prepared rice paddies instead, and those practicing tavy were fined or imprisoned. Despite the penalties, and much to the chagrin of forestry agents, tavy continued to be practiced in the 1980s. Even those who cultivated wet paddies often practiced tavy on the side. The crop cycle for tavy was shorter than for irrigated rice, and generations of experience taught that it was the only insurance against the droughts that occurred about every three years. Moreover, the precipitous slopes and heavy, irregular rains made it difficult to maintain affordable and controllable irrigation systems. A similar system of shifting cultivation was practiced in the arid, sparsely populated regions of the extreme south and southwest. The dry brush or grassland was burned off, and drought-resistant sorghum or maize was sown in the ashes. In the Antandroy and some Mahafaly areas, however, the main staples of subsistence-cassava, maize, beans, and sorghum-were also grown around the villages in permanent fields enclosed by hedges. Dry-season cultivation in empty streambeds was practiced largely on the western coast and in the southwest and was called baiboho. The crops were sown after the last rising of the waters during the rainy seasons, and after the harvest fresh alluvial deposits naturally replenished the soil. Lima beans (known as Cape peas) were raised by this system on the Mangoky River system delta, along with tobacco and a number of newer crops. The traditional livestock-raising peoples were the Bara, Sakalava, and other groups of the south and west, where almost every family owned some zebu cattle. The common practice was to allow the animals to graze almost at will, and the farmers took few precautions against the popular custom of cattle stealing. These farmers were also accustomed to burning off the dry grass in order to promote the growth of new vegetation for animal feed. The cattle were slaughtered only upon ceremonial occasions, but these were so frequent that the per capita meat consumption among the cattle herders was very high. Modern Agricultural Development The Ministry of Agricultural Production and over seventy parastatal agencies were engaged in various kinds of land development, agricultural extension, research, and marketing activities-all with the purpose of promoting a profitable, modern agriculture. In the 1970s, however, the activities of these agencies had only a limited effect in achieving their objective. The pressures of constant institutional change, continued transportation bottlenecks, lack of general budgetary funds, and the decrease of foreign technical support in the latter part of the decade left the nation's rural development programs in a state of disarray at the start of the 1980s. The government distinguished two broad kinds of agricultural support programs. The ministry itself directed the diffuse efforts of a nationwide staff that provided technical support to individual farms. More intensive development programs, called grandes operations, were directed at improving the production of specific commodities in selected zones of agricultural activity. Often these were conducted on integrated irrigation projects begun many years earlier by the French or other foreign development agencies. Coordinating this wide array of activities was an almost impossible task for the Ministry of Agricultural Production and its predecessors, which partly explains the constant reorganization of the ministerial bureaucracy. The ministry was reorganized in 1979 for more than the tenth time, and according to some reports the new minister was studying a proposal to reform it yet again in 1982. The last reorganization was undertaken with the objective of decentralizing its activities. The provincial directors were to have primary responsibility for managing all programs. Whereas the previous organization established regional development centers (Unite Regionale d'Expansion Rurale-URER), the new system proposed to set up a center at each fivondronampokontany. Each center was to have a staff of specialists in irrigation, production technology, cooperative and enterprise management, forestry, livestock, statistics, finance, training, and other important fields. After the reorganization was announced, however, it was found that the budget could only support eighteen such centers, which were established in the capitals of the former prefectures. Although the reform was designed to overcome a lack of coordination between specialists in different fields, in actuality the administrative confusion and budgetary cost of the new system had almost completely paralyzed the ministry's activities in the early 1980s. Some problems arose because there were no funds to pay the large force of contracted employees who were needed to run the programs at the local level. There were 125 classified, intensive development projects in 1982, set up under a complex variety of legal guidelines. Only fifteen were state farms, while the remainder had varying degrees of state participation and aid from foreign development agencies. All of the projects were expected to be self-supporting, comparable to a business establishment. In practice many were dependent on aid from the government. Often the managers of these enterprises were detailed from the ministry. Some were managed by the armed forces, as in the case of the publicized national land development program, to add twenty hectares of new agricultural land to each firaisampokontany (see The Structure of the State, this ch.; Madagascar, ch. 6). Six development companies, established along with French assistance in the 1960s as "companies of a mixed economy," held the predominant position among the many scattered development projects. Each company was developing 10,000 hectares of new, irrigated farmland and livestock facilities in the western part of the island. The companies operating in the lower Mangoky River region (SAMANGOKY), the Morondava River basin (SODEMO), and the Lake Alaotra area (SOMALAC) were virtually the same organizations that developed these areas in the 1960s. Two new corporations set up in the Betsiboka River basin and in Toliary Province (FIFABE and FIFATO respectively) were consolidations of smaller companies and the former URERs. The specialities and performance of these companies varied. SOMALAC specialized in rice and cassava production almost exclusively, while SAMANGOKY, SODEMO, and FIFATO managed cotton-growing operations as well. Little information was available on the position of these corporations in 1982, but none had achieved its targeted area of development. Management of these projects was hampered by lack of supplies, equipment failures, and by state-controlled prices. In some cases the decentralization of political power has led to the appointment of local authorities with little technical experience to manage the company operations. An important source of agricultural extension work was the Center for Agricultural Research and Development (FOFIFA/CENRADERU), whose institutes were in charge of all agricultural research and development. Although the center came under the budgetary supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, it was to coordinate its activities with the Ministry of Agricultural Production to set up pilot farming programs throughout the country. The quality of the center's staff was reportedly good, but in 1982 the lack of personnel and research funds had crippled the center's efforts. Data on the progress of agricultural development activities were lacking in 1982, but the declining productivity trends for most crops and livestock, together with informal observations, suggested that the situation had deteriorated since 1977. At that time only 15 to 16 percent of the total area cultivated was under some sort of modern irrigation network, of which less than half could be considered permanently irrigated. Since then the facilities have deteriorated. Another 15 percent of the cultivated areas were under some sort of traditional irrigation system, but these were not capable of controlling the effects of prolonged droughts and floods. The new land being brought under cultivation each year was therefore unirrigated and could be only marginally productive. It was estimated that 900,000 hectares were potentially irrigable. A major factor contributing to the slow progress of the government's rural development efforts was the inefficient system of agricultural supply and marketing, which since 1972 has come increasingly under state control. From 1973 to 1977 one major parastatal agency, the Company for the National Interest in Agricultural Products (Societe d'Interet National des Produits Agricoles-SINPA), had a monopoly in the collection, importation, processing, and distribution of a number of commodities, and particularly of rice. Corruption leading to shortages of rice in a number of areas caused a scandal in 1977, and the government was forced to take over direct responsibility for rice marketing. In 1982 SINPA maintained a large share in the distribution system for agricultural commodities, while many smaller parastatal agencies were subcontracted to handle distribution in certain areas. The decreasing commercialization of rice and other commodities continued, however, suggesting that transportation bottlenecks and inadequate producer prices were undermining the official distribution channels. The Ministry of Agricultural Production maintained warehouses throughout the country for fertilizer, pesticides, and seed, but the distribution system for farm inputs has been as disrupted as the collection and marketing of produce. All of the nation's fertilizer other than manure had to be imported. It was estimated in the official news media that about 70,000 tons of chemical fertilizer (by chemical weight) would be required in order to eliminate the nation's rice deficit. In the 1981-82 period only 10,000 tons were applied, compared with 14,000 tons in the 1971-72 peak period. The national average of five kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of paddy was less than a tenth of the world average. The government's response has been to build two fertilizer plants-one at Toamasina having an annual capacity of 90,000 tons of urea and one for organic fertilizers at Amboasary having a 27,000-ton capacity. The cost of the projects, especially the naphtha inputs for the Toamasina plant, was high, and it would be unlikely for the plants to produce fertilizer at less than the world price. Furthermore the fertilizer from these plants would have to be mixed by the farmers themselves, unlike the premixed variety that the farmers were accustomed to using. The government would be compelled to increase both its subsidies for fertilizers and its extension services in order to utilize the production from these plants. Both would be a severe strain on the already deficit-ridden budget. Without adequate farming inputs the government's attempts in the early 1980s to promote production by raising producer prices for agricultural products were likely to fail. Subsidies for important inputs such as fertilizer and seed, moreover, tended to increase the amount of marginal land brought into cultivation. In 1982 the government had yet to institute a pricing system that would promote both the production of important crops and economic efficiency. Commodity Developments In the early 1980s the level of agricultural output of food and export commodities remained highly vulnerable to yearly fluctuations of weather conditions and external demand. The majority of Malagasy farmers were probably still operating at the subsistence level, and production data were therefore difficult to measure and were unreliable. It appeared, however, that a combination of bad weather and poor agricultural support facilities had reduced the yields for most crops as well as the slaughter of livestock. Low demand for some of the country's principal export items also tended to restrict production. Rice was the main staple and the dominant crop, the estimated consumption-some 400 or 500 grams (weight as uncooked rice) per person per day-was the highest in the world. According to official data, which were estimates at best, production grew by less than 1 percent per year during the 1970-79 period, despite the expansion of the cultivated paddy area by more than 3 percent per year. Moreover the share of rice available for marketing in the rapidly growing urban areas declined from 16 or 17 percent of the total crop in the early 1970s to about 11 or 12 percent during the latter part of the decade. Most of the incremental output was apparently consumed at home by subsistence farmers. There were three main areas of surplus rice production: the Lake Alaotra basin, parts of the Betsimitatatra plain, and the swampy basin near Marovoay along the Betsiboka River on the northwestern coast. The latter was a traditional granary area where a modern agricultural project produced high-quality rice varieties for export during most of the 1960s. Of the densely settled areas, the parts of the Central Highlands that were populated heavily by Merina and Betsileo groups were the areas where production and consumption were basically in balance. In bad crop years, however, these regions were also likely to be in deficit. Other areas having an approximate balance were chiefly in areas that had a low population density or a strong production of export crops, such as the north-central region and the sedimentary riverine areas of the western coast. The northern coast had the potential to produce its own rice supply if transport links and storage could be improved. The major rice deficit areas were in the south, where rice was not the traditional staple anyway, and along the East Coast, where population density, cultivation habits, floods, and rainstorms made it likely that a chronic food deficit would be unavoidable. Declining rice productivity caused the economy to become a net importer, whereas in 1971 it was a net exporter. Net imports were some 24,000 tons in 1972 and by the 1980-82 period exceeded 200,000 tons per year-about 10 percent of the total domestic crop and about equal to the demand from urban consumers (see table 2, Appendix A). Damage from three cyclones that hit the East Coast in 1981 and 1982 reportedly destroyed 60 percent of the crop in the Lake Alaotra region. Rice imports were expected to increase-perhaps doubling in 1982. Low producer prices and consumer prices have been a major disincentive for producers as well. The producer price for rice was raised only 4 percent between 1977 and 1979. The 10 percent increases allowed in 1981 and 1982 did not match the domestic inflation rate. Cassava was the second major food crop in terms of area planted and probably in quantity consumed, though it was low in consumer preference. It was grown almost everywhere on the island, particularly in the far south where it was the staple, and around Lake Alaotra and the Sambirano River in the north, where it was grown for industrial processing into tapioca, starch, and flour. Perhaps one-third of total production was used to feed livestock, especially in the Central Highlands. Elsewhere it was used as a reserve against famine, so that the average annual crop was thought to be double the amount consumed in a year. In the late 1970s the production of cassava increased dramatically, demonstrating perhaps a great deal of uncertainty over weather conditions. A variety of other food crops, including roots and tubers, maize, sorghum, peas, beans, bananas, and other fruits and vegetables were grown to supplement the main staples of diet. Except for Cape peas and bananas, production was almost exclusively for domestic consumption. The output of groundnuts, primarily for the production of edible oils, stagnated in the 1970s. Despite regular increases in producer prices and the foundation of a nationwide support organization for groundnut farmers, there was poor progress in varietal improvement and extension support. Government plans to extend the area under cultivation of groundnuts to 64,000 hectares by 1990 and to produce an additional 11,000 tons of edible oils from oil palm and copra plantations would be unable to meet the rising domestic demand unless the present yield of about one ton per hectare could be more than doubled. Sugar production was also lagging because of the low producer prices and outmoded equipment. During the 1978-80 development plant the government had only modest designs for increasing sugar output. Madagascar had a quota of some 70,000 tons for export, according to a 1980 agreement among the world's sugar-producing nations, and further expansion would seem to be profitable. The most important export crops were coffee, cloves, and vanilla (see table 3, Appendix A). Coffee production rose steadily during the early 1970s to a peak of 84,000 tons in 1975. After a decline because of poor weather, the harvest rebounded to about 81,000 tons in 1979. Producer prices were about one-third of the world market price in 1980 and 1981, and considerable expansion was possible. About 98 percent of the coffee trees were on small, unfertilized plots with low yields. Clove production was characterized by a three- or four-year production cycle, and the 18,500 tons produced in 1979 neared the peak capacity. The producer price in 1979 was about 40 percent of the international price, and it was raised substantially in 1981. Poor maintenance of the vanilla crop, unfavorable weather conditions, and a softening of world demand for natural vanilla contributed to a significant decline in production during the 1977-79 period. Data on production in the livestock sector were poor, but the cattle population seemed to have declined in the 1975-79 period. The percentage of slaughtered cattle remained low-between 5 and 9 percent of the registered cattle population. This rate of utilization was low considering the favorable conditions for livestock production, which included some 42,000 square kilometers of natural pasture and fewer kinds of cattle diseases than on the African mainland. Nearly all production came from traditional farms in the west and south, except for the output from a few state farms. The government and the World Bank were conducting a major village livestock program in western Madagascar, providing rural infrastructure and veterinary services to about 500 villages in Mahajanga Province. The project was reportedly meeting with success in 1982 and was being expanded. The government fared less well with the marketing and distribution of meat products, which it has tried to control tightly, especially in the Antananarivo area. Controlled meat prices have been out of balance with the freely floating price of cattle and, as a result, supplies of cattle for slaughter have been insufficient. In 1980 retail prices were doubled in the capital, and privated butchers were allowed to set their own prices. Madagascar had preferential access to the European Economic Community (EEC) to sell 7,500 tons of beef, and exports reached 9,000 tons in 1972. There was considerable room, therefore, to expand exports from the 5,000-ton level in 1979. Forestry and Fishing Forestry resources in 1981 totaled 12.4 million hectares of indigenous forest classified by the government as "productive" and some 300,000 hectares of eucalyptus and pine plantations. Over 4 million hectares of potentially productive forest have been reduced to unproductive secondary growth, savoka, through burning and clearing (see Topography, Coastlines, and Soils, this ch.). Total annual consumption was about 7 million cubic meters, of which fuel wood represented some 80 percent and wood for industrial purposes the remainder. Demand for construction timber exceeded supply, and the government was directing its efforts to expanding the pine plantations. The most successful and largest plantation project was located in the Mangoro River valley some seventy-five kilometers east of Antananarivo. About 65,000 hectares of pine trees were planted there between 1969 and 1980, and an additional 18,500 hectares were being added during the early 1980s. With the exception of an outbreak of a mild tree disease, the project has been progressing ahead of schedule. The government hoped to tap the Andekaleka Hydroelectric Project to provide energy for a proposed pulp and paper mill to be built in the area. Over 30,000 hectares near Matsiatra were also successfully reforested in the 1970s for possible use in a planned pulp mill. The fishery sector experienced little growth in the late 1970s. The marketed catch from traditional coastal and inland fishing for domestic consumption leveled off at around 6,000 tons. The marketed catch from commercial fishing operations decreased from about 7,000 tons each in 1975 and 1976 to only 3,700 tons in 1978. Most commercial fishing took place out of ports on Nosy Be in the northwest and were centered on grounds in the Mozambique Channel, where the FAO estimated Malagasy fishermen could take up to 290,000 tons of fish annually. The National Center for Oceanographic Research, established on Nosy Be in 1977, was conducting a study together with the FAO in the 1980-82 period to explore these grounds further. Most of the sea catch, including shrimp, lobster, crab, and tuna, was for export. On the whole, however, fishing was done as a sideline by farmers who supplemented their farm produce with fish from freshwater rivers, lakes, and ponds. Perhaps two-thirds of the total yearly catch was consumed for subsistence, and transportation costs to the capital city made the price of marketed fish prohibitively expensive to other domestic consumers. The introduction of tilapia fish from the African mainland in the 1950s gave a great boost to inland aquiculture. Many families, particularly in the Central Highlands, have established fish ponds to raise carp, black bass, or trout. The breeding of fish in rice fields, however, required sophisticated water control and a strong guard against dynamiting, poisoning, and poaching, which were chronic problems.