Therefore, a greater emphasis on training in sustainable, and regenerative, practices is necessary. The team found that greater rice and vanilla productivity can significantly reduce food insecurity. The results have important implications for sustainable development in this system. These trends have been documented in many similar settings, in which larger landholdings require more labor, and family labor is crucial to achieving food sovereignty. Those larger families that had larger landholdings had the lowest food insecurity. Those farmers that had larger household sizes (up to 10 in this sample) had a higher probability of experiencing food insecurity than smaller households, but only if they had small landholdings. In addition to the effects of farming productivity on the probability of food insecurity, the research revealed that household demographics, specifically the number of people living in the household, had an interactive effect with land size. It also leads to early harvests, before the vanilla beans have completely ripened, which degrades the quality of the final products and can exacerbate price volatility. Because of the high price, vanilla is often stolen, which leads farmers to spend weeks in their fields guarding the vanilla from thieves before harvesting. Further, the high price of vanilla brings with it ‘ hot spending,’ resulting in cycles of boom and bust for impoverished farmers. Without the natural pollinators in its home range of Mexico, Malagasy vanilla requires hand pollination by the farmers, and whole crops can be devastated by natural disasters like disease outbreaks and cyclones. Vanilla is also a labor- and time-intensive crop it requires specific growing conditions of soil, humidity, and shade, it takes at least 3 years from planting to the first crop. The vanilla market is subject to extreme volatility, with prices varying by an order of magnitude from year to year. Though vanilla can bring in a higher price than rice, there are several factors that make vanilla an unpredictable crop. There was an interaction between rice and vanilla harvests, such that those farmers that produced the most rice had the lowest probability of food insecurity, even when compared to farmers who grew more vanilla but less rice. The positive side is that the more productive the farm, especially in terms of rice and vanilla harvests, the lower the probability of food insecurity. The most common cause that they reported was small land size most respondents estimated they owned less than 4 hectares of land (<10 acres), and traditional farming practices including the use of fire to clear the land are reducing yields and leading to widespread erosion. The international research team found that a significant proportion of respondents (up to 76%) reported that they experienced times during which did not have adequate access to food during the previous three years. Both of the Malagasy partners are preparing graduate degrees and expanding their research to lead the next generation of local scientists.įarmers harvesting the rice fields in Madagascar. By partnering with local scientists, the team was able to fine-tune the way they captured data on farming practices and food security. The Duke University Lemur Center has been operating conservation and research activities in the SAVA region for 10 years. ![]() ![]() The team interviewed almost 400 people in three remote rural villages in an area known as the SAVA region, an acronym for the four main towns in the region: Sambava, Andapa, Vohemar, and Antalaha. Their recently published article in the journal Food Security details intricate interactions between household demographics, farming productivity, and the likelihood of experiencing food shortages. In a paper published Jin the journal Food Security, a team of scientists collaborating between Duke University and in Madagascar set out to investigate the links between natural resource use, farming practices, socioeconomics, and food security. While most Malagasy farmers live on less than $2 per day, selling vanilla can make some farmers rich beyond their dreams, though these profits come with a price, and a new study illustrates it is not enough to overcome food insecurity. ![]() Most of the world’s best quality vanilla comes from Madagascar. ![]() Rice is the most important food crop, but lately an internationally-prized crop has taken center stage: vanilla. Over 70% of Malagasy people are farmers, and food security is a constant challenge. Despite the cultural and natural riches, Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. Madagascar, famous for its lemurs, is home to almost 26 million people. A new study investigates why and what they can do about it
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