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Madagascar Agricultural Production
The 1984-85 agricultural census estimated that 8.7
million
people live in the rural areas and that 65 percent of the
active
population within these areas lives at the subsistence
level. The
census also noted that average farm size was 1.2 hectares,
although irrigated rice plots in the central highlands
were often
0.5 hectares. Only 5.2 percent (3 million hectares) of the
country's total land area of 58.2 million hectares is
under
cultivation; of this hectarage, less than 2 million
hectares are
permanently cultivated. Agriculture is critical to
Madagascar's
economy in that it provides nearly 80 percent of exports,
constituting 33 percent of GDP in 1993, and in 1992
employed
almost 80 percent of the labor force. Moreover, 50.7
percent
(300,000 square kilometers) of the total landmass of
592,000
square kilometers supports livestock rearing, while 16
percent
(484,000 hectares) of land under cultivation is irrigated.
The government significantly reorganized the
agricultural
sector of the economy beginning in 1972. Shortly after
Ratsiraka
assumed power, the government announced that holdings in
excess
of 500 hectares would be turned over to landless families,
and in
1975 it reported that 500,000 hectares of land had been
processed
under the program. The long-range strategy of the
Ratsiraka
regime was to create collective forms of farm management,
but not
necessarily of ownership. By the year 2000, some 72
percent of
agricultural output was to come from farm cooperatives, 17
percent from state farms, and only 10 percent from
privately
managed farms. Toward this end, the Ministry of
Agricultural
Production coordinated with more than seventy parastatal
agencies
in the areas of land development, agricultural extension,
research, and marketing activities. However, these
socialistinspired rural development policies, which led to a severe
decline in per capita agricultural output during the
1970s, were
at the center of the liberalization policies of the 1980s
and the
structural adjustment demands of the IMF and the World
Bank.
The evolution of rice production--the main staple food
and
the dominant crop--offers insight into some of the
problems
associated with agricultural production that were
compounded by
the Ratsiraka years. Rice 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. As a result, Madagascar became a net
importer of
rice beginning in 1972, and by 1982 was importing nearly
200,000
tons per year--about 10 percent of the total domestic crop
and
about equal to the demand from urban customers.
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. From 1973 to 1977, one major
parastatal
agency, the Association for the National Interest in
Agricultural
Products (Société d'Intérêt National des Produits
Agricoles--
SINPA), had a monopoly in collecting, importing,
processing, and
distributing a number of commodities, most notably 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; it subcontracted many smaller
parastatal agencies to handle distribution in certain
areas. 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. Rice growers responded by
moderately
expanding production by 9.3 percent during the latter half
of the
1980s from 2.18 million tons in 1985 to 2.38 million tons
in
1989, and rice imports declined dramatically by 70 percent
between 1985 and 1989. However, the Ratsiraka regime
failed to
restore self-sufficiency in rice production (estimated at
between
2.8 million to 3.0 million tons), and rice imports rose
again in
1990. In 1992 rice production occupied about two-thirds of
the
cultivated area and produced 40 percent of total
agricultural
income, including fishing, which was next with 19 percent,
livestock raising, and forestry (see
table 3, Appendix).
In February 1994, Cyclone Geralda hit Madagascar just
as the
rice harvesting was to start and had a serious impact on
the
self-sufficiency goal. 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). This WFP aid was
later
transformed into a food-for-work program to encourage
development.
Other food crops have witnessed small increases in
production
from 1985 to 1992. Cassava, the second major food crop in
terms
of area planted (almost everywhere on the island) and
probably in
quantity consumed, increased in production from 2.14
million tons
in 1985 to 2.32 million tons in 1992. During this same
period,
corn production increased from 140,000 tons to 165,000
tons,
sweet potato production increased from 450,000 tons to
487,000
tons, and bananas dropped slightly from 255,000 tons to
220,000
tons.
Several export crops are also important to Madagascar's
economy. Coffee prices witnessed a boom during the 1980s,
making
coffee the leading export crop of the decade; in 1986
coffee
earned a record profit of US$151 million. Prices within
the
coffee market gradually declined during the remainder of
the
1980s, and earnings reached a low of US$28 million in 1991
although they rebounded to US$58 million in 1992. Cotton
traditionally has been the second major export crop, but
most
output during the early 1980s was absorbed by the local
textile
industry. Although cotton output rose from 27,000 tons in
1987 to
46,000 tons in 1988, once again raising the possibility of
significant export earnings, the combination of drought
and a
faltering agricultural extension service in the southwest
contributed to a gradual decline in output to only 20,000
tons in
1992.
Two other export crops--cloves and vanilla--have also
declined in importance from the 1980s to the 1990s.
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. A collapse in
international prices for cloves in 1987, compounded by
uncertain
future markets and the normal cyclical nature of the crop,
has
led to a gradual decline in production from a high of
14,600 tons
in 1991 to 7,500 tons in 1993. Similarly, the still stateregulated vanilla industry (state-regulated prices for
coffee and
cloves were abolished in 1988-89) found itself under
considerable
financial pressure after 1987 because Indonesia reentered
the
international market as a major producer and synthetic
competitors emerged in the two major markets of the United
States
and France. As a result, vanilla production has declined
from a
high of 1,500 tons in 1988 and 1989 to only 700 tons in
1993.
The fisheries sector, especially the export of shrimp,
is the
most rapidly growing area of the agricultural economy (see
table 4, Appendix). This production is making up for lost
revenues and
potential structural decline within the ailing coffee,
vanilla,
and clove trade. Since 1988 total fish production has
expanded
nearly 23 percent from 92,966 tons to 114,370 tons in
1993. The
export of shrimp constituted an extremely important
portion of
this production, providing export earnings of US$48
million in
1993. It is estimated by Aqualma, the major multinational
corporation in the shrimp industry, that expansion into
roughly
35,000 hectares of swampland on the country's west coast
may
allow for the expansion of production from the current
6,500 tons
and US$40 million in revenues to nearly 75,000 tons and
US$400
million in revenues by the end of the 1990s. The prospects
are
also good for promoting greater levels of fish cultivation
in the
rice paddies, and exports of other fish products, most
notably
crab, tuna, and lobster, have been rising.
Livestock production is limited in part because of
traditional patterns of livestock ownership that have
hampered
commercialization. Beef exports in the early 1990s
decreased
because of poor government marketing practices, rundown
slaughtering facilities, and inadequate veterinary
services.
Approximately 99 percent of cattle are zebu cattle. In
1990 the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated that
Madagascar had 10.3 million cattle, 1.7 million sheep and
goats,
and some 21 million chickens.
Data as of August 1994
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