In 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Madagascar defined a Farmers’ Services Strategy (SSA) that aims to better meet the service needs of producers in order to help them improve their production, productivity and income.
At the request of its long-standing partner, Fifata, a national confederation of farmers’ organizations, Fert supported the establishment of Regional Agricultural Development Funds (FDAR) in 4 other regions (Ihorombe, Amoron’i Mania, Menabe, Vakinankaratra) between 2011 and 2016. The purpose of these FDARs is to contribute financially to projects carried out by farmers’ organisations, provided that certain criteria are met. Requests may concern technical training, agricultural advisory services, the purchase of equipment, the construction of small infrastructures, support for the annual budget of a farmer’s organisation, etc. A project is only financed if the actors are very strongly involved.
Since mid-2017, Fert has been associated with AMADESE, a Malagasy NGO, to support the establishment and operationalization of an FDAR in the Alaotra Mangoro region over a period of 4 years as part of the Madagascar Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (PAPAM, financed by the French Development Agency). The first year was devoted to the recruitment and training of the regional team and then the regional orientation and allocation committee, which will be in charge of validating the requests submitted by project leaders. The financing of the first projects is planned for the end of 2018; producers are impatient because of significant issues of development in this agricultural region “Madagascar’s rice granary”.
