Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0228/02284.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 28KB | 436 lines

$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 t