Diversifying rice-based systems to enhance household nutrition, food security and women empowerment

Madagascar has a high malnutrition rate, ranking it as the 5th country suffering from chronic malnutrition in the world, with 42% of children under 5 years old. Given the environmental crises caused by climate change, along with political and socio-economic instability, addressing malnutrition requires interventions to strengthen an inclusive and sustainable farming system. Rice remains a staple food and thus occupies an especially prominent place in the farming systems on the island. The rice systems acknowledge the essential role of women, as labourers and take the lead in testing and disseminating technologies. Innovations that improve productivity of rice expand the outlook to the household needs, integrating sub-systems that allow maximizing production and improving farming system resilience while addressing objectives of interest including women empowerment and household nutrition. The recently concluded BRECOMA project (Building Resilience to Enhance Food, Incomes and Nutrition Security in the Comoros and Madagascar), led by Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), illustrated such perspective of diversifying agricultural production through introduction of new crops, testing climate-resilient agro-ecological practices, facilitating access to market through structuring of producers and improving nutrition of vulnerable groups through social inclusion. This project was implemented from March 2022 until March 2025 in Analamanga, Itasy and Vakinankaratra regions of Madagascar.

Reads the original article