Deep Roots

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Image: Fairfood International

Vanilla is chiefly suitable for smallholder and family farmers, most of whom

use traditional farming methods

Fluctuating prices and margins are the main causes of income and insecurity

for Madagascar’s vanilla farmers

bund roads and infrastructure, Madagascar’s agricultural

sector clearly needs attention from African leaders.

Early this year, the African Union announced 2014 as the

Year of Agriculture and Food Security. This announcement

bears great significance for a continent where 75-80 per cent

of the population depends solely on small-scale agriculture,

and where most of the poor live in rural areas. This can be

a perfect opportunity for the continent’s leaders to support

Madagascar in developing some of its important agricul-

ture sectors such as rice and vanilla, and to improve market

access and regional trade for them.

The United Nations similarly proclaimed 2014 as the

International Year of Family Farming. Most international

donor agencies have already declared their recognition of the

important role of small-scale family farmers in tackling the

food security challenge and are already investing in projects

that seek to improve the lives of small-scale farmers in many

poor regions of the world. Investing in small-scale Malagasy

farmers should be seriously considered.

Following Madagascar’s political instability in 2009 and

the World Bank’s 2012 gloomy analysis of the Malagasy

economy, several international donors signalled a reluctance

to lend financial support to the country or ceased giving

it. This has taken its toll on the development of agricul-

ture and the rural poor. Notably, the International Fund for

Agricultural Development has so far funded 14 rural devel-

opment projects investing a total of US$208.3 million.

Most

of these projects are sectorial and focus on strengthening

farmers’ organizations, increasing poor people’s access to

rural credit, improving market access and boosting produc-

tion. Following the country’s recent presidential elections,

the political situation is expected to improve. In February

2014, the World Bank approved US$10 million to assist in

improving health and food security in Madagascar. More

international donors can therefore seize the opportunity to

scale up their support for Madagascar’s agriculture.

International non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

can help farmers and empower them with negotiation and

campaigning skills to advocate for themselves. In Madagascar’s

vanilla sector, this can be an important intervention for small

farmers to have a voice and be able to effectively engage power-

ful value chain players on pricing and other socioeconomic

issues. In addition, international advocacy organizations can

help by directly influencing the big multinational companies

and flavour houses to improve incomes for Madagascar’s

vanilla farmers. In late 2013, Fairfood International

started

its advocacy work in order to encourage the biggest multina-

tionals and flavour houses sourcing vanilla from Madagascar

to improve their policies and practices so that they benefit the

small farmers and catalyse a positive change within the vanilla

industry in Madagascar.

As the world looks towards 2050, when more than 9 billion

people will need to be fed, the burden will rest on the shoul-

ders of small-scale farmers all over the world. It is therefore

important that key players in the food system – companies,

but also NGOs, governments and international donors –

enable these farmers to enjoy socioeconomic fairness in the

food system. While we continue to enjoy our vanilla-flavoured

ice creams, cakes and chocolates, key players must act with

urgency to overcome the shameful paradox in Madagascar’s

vanilla sector by implementing the efforts outlined above.

This will go a long way to establishing sufficient financial

resources for Malagasy vanilla farmers and create a safety net

to lift them out of poverty and food insecurity.

eep

oots