Organic Agriculture in Madagascar: A Project for Society?
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Madagascar, in collaboration with the Syndicat Malgache pour l'Agriculture Biologique (SYMABIO), IFOAM - Organics International, and the Tranoben'ny Tantsaha Mpamokatra, organised a series of workshops from 14 to 16 December 2021 entitled "Organic Agriculture in Madagascar: A project for society?". The initiative was organised as part of the project "A peer-to-peer exchange between policy makers".
The objective of this event was to strengthen the capacities of Malagasy actors in relation to the creation of the political and legal framework for the development of organic agriculture in Madagascar, a project that started in 2017 and culminated in the promulgation in July 2020 of the Organic Agriculture Act 2020-003, and the development of the National Strategy for the Development of Organic Agriculture in Madagascar in 2019-2020. The event allowed national political and economic actors to take ownership of the environmental and health issues and economic opportunities that agroecology and organic farming offer to the country, and to collectively reflect on the proposal of concrete and priority actions for the development of organic agriculture in Madagascar.
The workshops brought together more than 100 participants, representing relevant ministries, producer organisations, organic farming companies, local authorities, NGOs and projects, research, consumers and technical and financial partners. The discussion focused on presenting the policy and regulatory framework to support organic farming in Madagascar and the tools it proposes, such as participatory guarantee systems and organic farming territories. Policy-makers from Tunisia, India, Italy and Bhutan also presented to the participants via videoconference the policies to support organic agriculture at the territorial level in their respective countries.
Workshop outcomes:
- A set of recommendations were developed summarising the interventions and concerns of the workshop participants regarding the promotion of organic and agroecological agriculture in Madagascar. Read them here in ENG and FR
- A series of short films were produced highlighting different aspects of Madagascar's food system transformation.