Attachments
Key points
• Three consecutive years of severe drought in the Grand Sud of Madagascar have led to the country’s worst food crisis in the last 20 years, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of already poor populations.
• Despite humanitarian interventions, the outcome of the main agricultural season in 2021 was low due to reduced cultivated areas linked to limited access to agricultural inputs and the delayed onset of rains. Subsequently, sowing for 60 percent of households took place in January 2022 instead of November 2021.
• The passage of cyclones Batsirai and Emnati in February 2022 devastated the livelihoods of populations in the Grand Sud-Est, damaging rice, cassava and cash crops, leading to higher levels of acute food insecurity.
• The situation was exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, such as market supply disruptions, rising commodity prices (rice, maize, vegetables, pesticides, fertilizers and fuel) compared with previous years, and the general decline in income and employment opportunities.
• Armyworm attacks have also been reported in the Grand Sud on most crops of the previous agricultural season resulting in significant losses for households whose fields hadn’t been treated with pesticides.