Definition of Organic Farming

Organic Farming or Organic Agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved. IFOAM

Organic farming in Madagascar.

According to IFOAM/FIBL, in 2008:
- Madagascar is ranked 7th among the top ten countries with the largest certified organic agricultural land (ha) with its 9456 ha.
- As for the ranking of the top 10 countries with the largest number of organic farms, we are in the 7th place with 5,455 farms.

An important part of organic production also takes place in the informal sector and without certification. There are organic farmers for whom certification has no benefit: this is true for farmers who practice subsistence agriculture, mainly to ensure food security for their family or their community. There are no official statistics on this type of organic production.

 

Why go organic ?

Organic Farming contributes to sustainable food security. Organic management systems have doubled yields in arid and degraded lands (eg, in Tigray, Ethiopia). A study using an internationally recognized has shown that a conversion to organic farming (50%) would result in sub-Saharan Africa increased food supply and reducing the dependence of food imports.

Organic Farming can reduce the effects of new problems, such asclimate change, through measures like soil carbon sequestration.

Organic Farming offers the most efficient model to stop the dramatic desertification processqthat currently takes place in Africa where two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands, through prevention of erosion and land degradation, and restoration degraded lands.

Organic Farming allows creating sustainable livelihoods for farm families, by promoting access to new business opportunities and offering better prices for their products. Moreover, better pay for organic products is not only an important incentive for individual producers, but also offers greater opportunities for communities to become more independent and generate new opportunities in education and employment.

Organic Farming improves human health and maximises environmental services by preservation of biodiversity, soil improvement and exclusion of agricultural chemical inputs that infect human beings and ecosystems.

Organic Farming reduces the costs of external inputs, aexcluding use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, genetically modified organisms and pharmaceuticals.

Defend the values that respect environment

Alarming findings were observed during our descent into regions, the Company Guanomad offers solutions for better protecting our environment.

These resolutions will be:

– Soil Management
- Management of Water
- Managing Biodiversity

Soil management

Deforestation

A major problem in the management of soil and trees in Madagascar is the Deforestation, whose main causes are:
• The production of wood charcoal, the primary source of energy for many households. Now, it takes 30 trees of average size for a bag of charcoal.
• The disproportionate and illegal logging disproportionate in most cases for the production of furniture,
• The Tavy, or slash and burn, a technique for operating on the ground very practiced Highlands,
• The accidental or criminal Bushfires that not only destroy the trees and the earth but the smoke is responsible for a greenhouse effect, leading to global warming.

For Madagascar, the damage was enormous for great cropping season 2010 - 2011: a temperature increasing compared to normal, the complete transformation of the pluviometric mapping, the delay of the rainy season.

Soil degradation

Erosion is a natural process of soil degradation and transformation of the relief mainly caused by wind, water and especially the man.
This deterioration is just as compaction reduction of rates in organic matter deterioration of soil structure insufficient underground drainage, salinisation and soil acidification. It causes soil losses and declining productivity of the concerned region.
In Madagascar, erosion is already at an advanced stage and is visible in all regions as "Lavaka", ravines landslide.
It is a major problem that relates to agriculture and the environment.

What issues ?
• Mechanical methods that are intended to protect cultivated land, by the creation of ditches. Thus, it causes of infiltration of rainwater and it slows the speed of water flowed into the ground, or it is diverted to areas where erosion is not expected. They include the development of terraces along contour lines on the slope and the installation of drainage ditches planted with grasses (eg. : vetiver).

• Biological methods :
– Fallows: let stand for several periods a soil that has brought many cultures.
– Crop rotation that is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to seek to balance the fertility demands of various crops to avoid excessive depletion of soil nutrients. Crop rotation also avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped
– Above all the contribution of basic fertilization which is of organic fertilizer to revitalize soil

• Reforestation should be continuous and regular to enhance the most degraded soils.

Water management

The main lakes of Madagascar, are currently threatened by siltation, overuse, pollution especially by the residues of fertilizers and pesticides.
Indeed, overuse of chemical inputs including fertilizer, pesticide, ... will have a negative impact, not only on the deterioration of soil structure but also on water, including groundwater that may be polluted by nitrates, the disappearance of aquatic population: fishes and plants that both stabilize the water quality.

The adoption of organic farming techniques seems to be the best solution because:
• Using an organic fertilizer leads to no negative effect for neither the ground nor for water. Instead, the liquid nutrient of the soil is improved and expanded.
• Biocontrol against diseases and pests affecting the crop is now possible, thus limiting all forms of toxicity for both products for ground and water.

Management of biodiversity

Today, threats lurk around the ecosystem of Madagascar. Yet, it is an important asset, especially the forest ecosystem (22.6% of the island).

This eco is subdivided as follows:
– Old-growth Forests (16%) with a high rate of endemic and thickets, that both can grow in harsh climatic conditions
– Secondary forests, savanna, steppe (63%)
– Vegetation of rock outcrops, vegetation in marshes and swamps, mangroves

In addition of this particular ecosystem, the flora of Madagascar is also equipped with a high rate:
- Of the endemism that would be around 20%: on the 160 to 181 families of angiosperms, 8 are wholly endemic of the island.
- Of the the persistence of archaic species belonging to the families known only in a fossil state on other continents, especially in Africa, like Voanioala (coconut wild), Ravenna (Palmaceae),...
- Of particular phytogenic resources as the Madagascar periwinkle, the Aloe Vera, ...

Participate in rural development

Preponderance of the primary sector in Madagascar 78% of the Malagasy people live in Rural most of which lives on subsistence agriculture heavily dependent on climatic conditions and bad state of rural infrastructure, thereby moderating productivity gains. Only 35% of rural communes ( around 500 / 1557) are accessible all year. The rest is partially or fully landlocked during the rainy season, an very worrying situation for the products from agriculture and breeding that both must arise regularly. Access to clean water is also a terrible problem in Madagascar. Only 14% of rural people have access to. Without talking about problems of rural electrification, access to communication services.

What recommendations ? Increase and promotion of crop production: Improving food availability through technical assistance and learning that both promote the operating systems more productive, diversified and sustainable. Development of production infrastructure (hydro-agricultural systems: irrigation facilities, associations of water users, watershed, irrigated area, ...). Improving access of zones of production since impracticality of rural roads often hampers these regions. Particular emphasis will be made and the opening up of these regions by rehabilitating and maintaining rural roads, but also on market development. Promoting local investments: encourage emergence of economic rural development partners. Environmental preservation and promotion of natural resource management: we should find a balance between the increase of yield and the preservation of the environment because neither farmer nor company may claim the right to do anything. Development of the food processing activities and marketing Development of social infrastructure to improve access for the poor to social services: access to clean water, implementation of schools, establishment of local health Improvement of living conditions: building sinks, toilets, rural electrification.

GUANOMAD et la Jeunesse Malgache Dans le cadre de son programme de sensibilisation portant sur le thème « les jeunes prennent leur avenir en main », le Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Loisirs a organisé une série d'activités dans la Commune Urbaine d'Antananarivo et ses environs. Pour cela, le Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Loisirs a su fédérer, avec GUANOMAD, toutes les bonnes volontés. Le projet est dénommé Grand Tanà 2010. A travers ce partenariat, GUANOMAD a fait don d'engrais pour la réalisation des réhabilitations et entretien de

GUANOMAD’s actions

Agriculture Improvement

• Supply of high quality organic fertilizer for better yields
• Price of fertilizer available to all farmers
• Strengthening the distribution network in rural zones: the presence at communal level

Wealth creation

• Refunds paids
– In rural communities extraction
– At the fokontany
– In urban communes where are deposits
– In the Region

• Job Creation:
– Seasonal employees: 800 persons / day

Infrastructure implementation

• mproving access: 120 km of roads rehabilitated
• Marketplace: 10
• Offices fokontany: 3
• fountains