Le développement agricole du bassin supérieur de la Lokoho, à Madagascar

Abstract

Agricultural Development in the Upper Basin of Lokoho, Madagascar. The upper basin of Lokoho is a bowl in the Northeast of Madagascar, situated at an altitude of 480 meters, the bottom of which was for a long time unexploited. Its agricultural development began at the beginning of the Twentieth Century with the introduction of coffee and vanilla crops. This region remained totally isolated untill 1947, the year when an air service between Andapa and Tananarive was inaugurated. This service favored the development of the two income crops which, sold at favorable prices, were able to be exported profitably by plane. The very demographic growth, due essentially to immigration, was responsible for the development of rice growing, for local food purposes. Beginning in 1966, a hydraulic installation enabled the area to produce enough rice for export to the neighbouring regions, thanks to the linking road of Andapa-Sambava, built in 1970. At present, the Andapa region grows mainly rice, but rice production will rapidly a maximum limit, when the development of the plain is terminated. The real estate situation obliges the farmers to farm parcels that are too small for the economic use of machines ; some of these plots, moreover, have been attributed to bureaucrats and merchants whose only aim is to feed their families. Finally, rice, the basic food crop of the Madagascans, will always be sold at a very low price, not at all enticing to interest the farmer. Under the pressure of a constantly growing population, the peasants will then seek to farm the slopes. Rice paddy farming being impossible on the slopes, coffee and vanilla crops should logically experience a new growth phase.