Tropentag, September 20 - 22, 2017 in Bonn "Future Agriculture: Social-ecological transitions and bio-cultural shifts"

Limiting Factors in the Development of Vegetable Value Chains in Southeastern Madagascar

¹University of Agricultural Sciences, NutriHAF Project, Madagascar
²Centre National de la Recherche Appliquée au Développement Rural (FOFIFA), NutriHAF Project, Madagascar

Abstract

Food insecurity prevails in many parts of Madagascar. The Atsimo-Atsinanana Region, located in the Southeast of the country, ranks first with a lean period of 6 to 7 months compared to a national average of 5 months and a prevalence rate of 64% in 2012. The population of this area shows an enormous deficiency in micronutrients, partly due to an infrequent, low-level and low-diversity consumption of vegetables.. Vegetable crops, which are grown on very restricted surfaces, are also weakly developed. However, this region with its hot and humid climate almost all the year and its characteristic terroirs presents agro-climatic conditions favorable to vegetable crops. In addition, almost all the vegetables sold in the urban markets of the region come from the Malagasy highlands. The purpose of this paper is to explain why local producers do not address the needs of urban consumers for vegetables.
The value chain approach is considered the most appropriate way to conduct this study by highlighting the bottlenecks faced by the various actors, including producers, traders, urban consumers, Nutritional aspect. The approach adopted focuses on in-depth surveys of about 100 producers, about thirty traders and some 60 urban consumers. The results show that local growers mainly grow leafy vegetables (petsai, cabbage sprouts) and fruit vegetables (African eggplant, eggplant), which are mainly intended for self-consumption. These are short-cycle crops but also do not require a lot of inputs or interviews. Thus, the current perceptions of producers regarding vegetables limit the diversification of vegetable crops. The results also show that the preferences of urban consumers focus mainly on vegetables of better nutritional quality (carrot, potato, tomato, green bean) compared to those of producers. Divergent perceptions of producers and consumers limit the development of vegetable value chains.

Keywords: Actors, producers, traders, urban consumers, value chain, vegetables

Contact Address: Narilala Randrianarison, University of Agricultural Sciences, NutriHAF Project, Antananarivo, Madagascar, e-mail: narilalaryahoo.fr