Renewal of the support project for the fish farming cooperatives of the Haute Matsiatra in Madagascar 

Today, 77% of all rural households in Madagascar live below the poverty line. Combined rice cultivation-fish farming have proved to be an efficient solution for:

- improving agricultural yields: the introduction of fish into the rice field increasing its fertility and yield by 10%, 
- diversifying these households’ sources of income, 
- and last, fighting against malnutrition.

This agricultural practice has the advantage of feeding fish at a low cost thanks to the residues of rice cultivation.

But to develop this twinned cultivation, the peasants have to deal with a strong constraint: the production of fry needed to fill the rice fields with fish. This production structurally generates a loss because it is too expensive and unequally divided throughout the country. APDRA’s ambition is therefore to increase the number of producers by training new ones.

With the help of the Air Liquide Foundation, the APDRA opened a new permanent office, in 2009, in Fianarantsoa (central Madagascar) to extend its technical support to the Haute Matsiatra region. The recruitment of a Madagascan technician-trainer has moreover enabled the association that works with two peasant cooperatives to:

• Train 200 fish farmers in rice cultivation and fish farming techniques,
• Help them in obtaining fry,
• Better master carp development techniques.

Seeing these encouraging results, the Air Liquide Foundation has decided to renew its support over the 2010-2011 period.

This project, which builds the technical skills of groups of fish farmers, will make it possible to sustainably increase fish farming production in Haute Matsiatra.