Madagascar: From famine to hope

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When you picture a farmer, who do you see? In Madagascar, that farmer is almost always a woman.

On this island nation in the Indian Ocean, the climate is changing.

Droughts get longer and cyclones more common, and still women farm. They plant crops, they save

seeds, they feed families. Survival here depends on them, and yet despite the extreme weather,

they're not only enduring, they are experimenting, restoring and reinventing, transforming Madagascar's

farming landscape. I'm Georgie Stiles, a food anthropologist, and I'm traveling across Madagascar

to meet these women, and understand how food systems can adapt as the climate becomes ever more

extreme. From the BBC World Service, this is the documentary from famine to hope.

I've just driven along dusty red roads for about two hours, and arrived at a farm outside

of Madagascar's sprawling capital city, Antananarivo. The hills around me are green with trees and

crops. Rice paddies sit in the valleys with people waiting through the fields harvesting their

rice, and others are taking the produce back into the village using Zebu, a humpbacked cow,

and an old wooden cart. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, situated

off the south-eastern coast of Africa. Once known as the Green Island, it's one of the most

uniquely biodiverse places outside of the Amazon rainforest. But climate change has been particularly

devastating here. Factors like poverty, a poor economy, and intensity for a station have placed

this country in a perilous situation. Droughts and cyclones have exposed its red soil,

renaming it the Red Island. Four out of five people here are subsistence farmers,

they rely on their soil, but rapidly changing conditions have ravaged agricultural production,

pushing 1.9 million people into acute food insecurity, meaning they're either in or on the

brink of famine, and nearly 40% of children under five are chronically malnourished.

A collective of women hoe the land, taking out the grasses that have grown and turning them into

the soil below. The crops they were eventually plant here will help feed their families for the

rest of the year. That land up there, it's still part of the collective land, and we've already

put cassava there. So here we would grow peas and green beans. We also have here bee farming,

and fish farming. We also have seeds, banks, raised poultry, and zebra farming as well,

and we use those fertilizers to grow our crops. Despite over 80% of agricultural work being

carried out by women, according to the World Bank, less than 10% of women own land. And that's why

I'm here, because this female only farm is changing that. Farma Laluna explains how.

The lands are owned by the group, so for the collective land we would all work together.

There are 60 women, but inside the commune we have 150 members. What we do is to save money,

to be able to rent more land. It's the pride of having my own land, and also be able to make

decision on the land. I don't need to consult my husband. All of the farmers here are not only growing

food to feed their families. They are radically overhauling traditional land ownership systems,

which are rooted in patriarchal clam-based societies.

In Madagascar women don't inherit land from their parents.

Lens are given to sons and daughters are just given very small part of the land

that they call Tanimbjav, which means women's land.

Liliya Ravana-Rasoa, a farmer and founder of Femz and Action, Rural,

Dhammadagascar, a women-led farming solidarity network, helped these women start this farming

project in 2019.

If she's not married, she can use that to be able to get some income.

But when she gets married, she would follow the husband. If the husband dies,

she is not allowed to use the land unless her kids give their mother a portion of that land to work.

Especially in the countryside, men would be the one holding the money.

In 2005, Madagascar introduced a model for land reform, opening the door for families,

communities and individuals to claim land, including women.

So in the eyes of the law, both men and women have equal rights to buy land,

but customary laws, which keep the man of the household in charge,

mean that in reality, it's much harder for women to earn the money they need.

Some people would have very big land, but they're not using it,

so we would ask if they rent. We are raising awareness among the women and helping them on how to

own a land. Lilia had to overcome these deeply ingrained patriarchal norms in her own family life.

I've been facing a very big challenge. My parents in law, they've been really onto me because

they told that their son was not like other people's son because their son is at home

raising the kids and doing all the household work.

And they've been accusing me of always being out, but guess what? Compared to their other

daughter-in-laws and their children, I still have more products than they have.

I also owned many lands, so now instead of badly comparing me to others, now my parents

in law, they say to their children, oh you're not like Lilia, she's doing very well.

So now I'm the role model of the family, but it was a very long fight. It took me years

before I'm where I am today. These challenges and worse are faced by women throughout the

collective. Women wanted to come here, the husbands did not approve, but some of them came

anyway and once home, the husbands would beat them, but when the husbands started to see the

results, then there would be the ones who would encourage their wives to come and be trained.

Thames and Axion Rarell now boasts over 10,000 female members across Madagascar,

and not only helps women gain access to land, but teaches them a locally adapted climate-resilient

farming technique called agro-ecology. This is a farming system that aims to empower farmers,

thriving on shared local knowledge, it removes dependence on chemical fertilizers and foreign

seeds, which often leaves small farmers in debt. Laluna tells me what this means to her.

I learned new techniques, it has improved the quantity and the quality of the product,

and of course it has also increased my income. Lillia explains more.

It contributes to the protection of human beings and also protection of environment,

and it also protects the soil, but also protects the local seed.

Agro-ecology is very important because given the climate change, the soil is dry or maybe flooded,

and agro-ecology really brings the nature back, and when you eat products from agro-ecology

of course you are healthier. This combination of using locally adapted farming techniques

and female land ownership models is growing into a powerful movement across Madagascar.

Heli Rao Binna is the nutrition and gender specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization in

Madagascar. She believes that more women-owning lands would be one of the biggest health

improvements for families here. This is because they will be able to make more health conscious

and effective farming decisions like the adoption of agro-ecology.

This work is particularly important in a country facing extreme weather and climate change.

For farmers, many Madagascar are already adopting climate-friendly practices,

like agro-ecology, and have successfully strengthened family food security despite climate

impacts. We have droughts, cyclones, and regular rainfall, regulatory-freightened crops.

When women have equal access to productive resources like land,

inputs, and agricultural services, yields can increase 20 to 30 percent.

And women reinvest more in food, health, and children's education.

Globally, this could feed 100 to 150 million people and reduce hunger by 12 to 17 percent.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme are deeply concerned

about food insecurity in Madagascar, particularly in the south, where years of severe drought led to

famine in 2021 and 2022. While it's not officially in famine conditions right now,

high levels of malnutrition and hunger persist.

The 22 to PM Waifera is sunny, a little bit windy with some turbulence

during our descent and ground temperature is 36 degrees. We should, let's not stay at the

fort of our, have a nice day. I've come almost a thousand kilometers south to the bustling city

of Umbavumbe in the Andro region of southern Madagascar. The landscape here is a far cry from the

green luscious hills that surround the capital city, makeshift houses a packed tightly together,

and they rattle in the dusty wind revealing groups of people. It's the scene of refugees,

but these people have not fled to conflict. The southern regions of Madagascar are experiencing

the worst of the famine in climate crisis. The climate conditions have exasperated the

unpredictability of rain across the region, and even when the rain arrives, it is often accompanied

by cyclones, which wipe out entire harvests due to the lack of trees, making it one of the world's

most insecure places for food. My recording trip was even postponed due to a cyclone hitting

the region and wiping out roads, making it very difficult for communities to access provisions.

Here in Umbavumbe we had a lot of trees, but we cut it because we are lacking of charcoal.

We have to farm, so that's why we have to burn them. This was once a landscape of wash with trees,

but for us no longer cast a shadow over the people of the Andro region.

We were farming before, but I couldn't do it anymore because of the famine, so we had to move here.

I planted corn, pumpkin, watermelon, and sweet potatoes, but it wasn't a success.

We didn't have any rain and it's so windy. I don't have any family, my parents are dead,

my children are dead, I moved in Umbavumbe to bed.

The community here, driven by poverty, cut down the trees for charcoal, housing materials,

and farming. Now, the barren conditions mean that many have left their homes and come to the city

in search of work, food, and water.

All of them, but two of them are there and eight are alive.

A tragic reality of Madagascar is that every woman I've met so far has either lost a child,

a sibling, or a close family member to mount nutrition and hunger.

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I'm Georgie Stiles, and this is from Famine to Hope

from the BBC World Service.

The conditions in Madagascar have at times gone beyond desperate.

A 2025 analysis by Save the Children states that the number of children projected to suffer

from acute malnutrition by April 2026 has risen to nearly half a million,

an increase of 54% from the previous forecast.

And the European Commission says that nearly two million people across the country

are now in need of food aid and health assistance.

Climate change has added even more pressure.

The Malagasy government agrees that food insecurity is a direct symptom of their growing

exposure to climatic shifts, and has recognised the urgency in tackling root causes

by integrating food systems and climate actions into their national strategies.

Their approach supports adaptations like climate smart irrigation systems for arid areas,

and the introduction of resilient seeds from abroad to like Meringa.

They say that they prioritise empowering women through partnerships with organisations

like the World Food Programme, and targeted initiatives which bridge the gender gap,

including improving access to land, credit, technology and support for women-led cooperatives.

Will I ask you?

Yeah, I will ask you.

We are getting off-road.

I've travelled 10 kilometres west along a very bombed dirt road from Ambovumbay

to the Tismanananda commune.

This is an area of red dusty fields and dirt tracks that aligned with cactus and

hardy bushes, with the only shade cast from singular tamarind trees dotted across the landscape,

and oversteeply from strong winds.

I met Farma Laharan, sitting with her young daughter. Together they beat a sack of grain with

long wooden sticks, whilst her husband sang in front of a small wooden shack, home to this family of 10.

As they show me around their farm, even the smallest amount of wind kicks up the dust that surrounds

each crop. These crops are protected by a line of newly planted but very strong grain.

It's very important to me to live here, but when we face famine, we always think to move to Ambovumbay,

but I would be sad.

So, when it doesn't rain, we struggle about farming because the land is so dry,

so of course we are facing famine.

It's hard to imagine that just 80 years ago this land was covered in trees.

Laharan considered moving to the city, but instead she took it upon herself to transform

this small holding, and just like Lilluna's woman-led farm, she adopted the same locally adapted

climate-resilient farming technique called agro-ecology to help grow crops in this desert landscape.

Pemba and basil only, because it can stand off the sand, so that's why we plant them.

The ambatch are protecting from the wind, then we farm our plant like corn, like the basil,

inside the ambatch trees. The apemba can save us, like if we can collect this, if one of my kids

are sick, I can sell them for, for, for doing the medicines. So, we do all of our best to rely on

ourselves and hope that God will give us rain. Laharan's garden is chemical-free. She grows using a

variety of locally adapted seeds that she saved herself, which not only provides food to feed her

family, but ensures resilience against the conditions that make farming here so difficult,

acting as wind breaks, hardy-to-dry conditions, and putting nutrients back in the soil for future

harvests. Today, she's a leading figure across the region, training over 100 women in these

techniques, and as a result, keeping families together within the community. This is a woman creating

real change. So, I bring them here, so this is my class. This is the showcase garden, the perfect garden.

So, they are convinced, they follow my structure. I teach them to solve that problem when the

cyclone comes, they can feed their family. My farm is stronger when I use agroecology.

The main motivation is to be able to feed the south of Madagascar in a sustainable way,

and we really spread agroecologic techniques all around Madagascar.

Toloctra is the executive director of CTAS, center technique agroecology de suud,

and taught Laharan these techniques. Over her career, she's helped thousands of women across

southern Madagascar achieve food security with agroecology. Toloctra believes that these techniques

are essential for survival here. What CTAS doesn't act with is that people would be dependent on

external food aid. We have planted more than 10,000 hectares, and from that we could grow 12,000

tones of milk, 8,500 tones of sorghum, and those could feed hundreds and hundreds of households

with no water, with no chemical products. Now, more than 37,000 families can grow their own

food locally thanks to that technique. She says women are key to the spread of agroecology across

the south of Madagascar. If we want to bring development to the south, we need to help women

develop and empower them. So spreading agroecology would be easier if those women own their own land.

They are the ones planting seeds, harvesting, so they can see directly the result of the agroecology

techniques, but despite their successes, they need more help from the government.

What we want is to have a national strategy for agroecology, also sustainability of the products,

and a common effort by all the stakeholders is added value of agroecological products,

because it shouldn't have the same price as products with chemical products. It should be

more available. We have already started seeing initiative, but there's still a lot to be done.

From what I've seen, agroecology is a powerful tool in fighting famine and climate change here

in Madagascar, but it's not the only answer. We integrate these practices into climate smart

agriculture, and we link climate smart agriculture with nutrition, sensitive agriculture,

enabling resilience techniques, better climate risk and management and secure food production

highly from the food and agriculture organisation. As to ensure food security and nutrition

and resilience for small hordes in Madagascar, we must adopt an integrated

food systems approach. Resilience cannot rely on a single practice.

The Malagasy government says it's actively promoting agroecology,

along with other agricultural techniques and technologies, such as using drought-resistant

seeds, introducing new modified crop varieties like bio-fortified beans and orange flesh sweet potato,

and expanding livestock production. They state that combating chronic food insecurity and hunger

must be driven by a systemic approach that integrates nutrition, climate resilience and sustainable

agriculture. The social changes I've witnessed here are huge. Building a network of empowered

women farmers using locally adapted techniques like agroecology is slowly bringing equality in land

ownership. But the question of whether it can feed a growing population in these rapidly changing

environments with the current levels of support and investment is still very uncertain.

But at least for now, families like Laharans and Lalunas can survive for another season.

In 2026, this is the International Year of Women Farmers. It is an opportunity to highlight

the role of women in agriculture, investing in women is investing in sustainable and strong

future for all rural communities in Madagascar.

The documentary from Famine to Hope was a two-degrees-west production from the BBC World Service.

It was produced and presented by me, Georgie Stiles, sound design was by Rowan Bishop.

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