Rice policy development in Madagascar

It begins with a brief review of available production and consumption statistics placed in a simple food balance context and compared with a selection of other countries, most of which are rice dependent. It calls attention to the uniqueness of Madagascar"s food economy at its level of economic development. This section also attempts a simple reconciliation of changes in rice consumption over the past decade with underlying economic forces. The second part of the report covers issues relating to pricing policy and marketing structure. It addresses issues about integrating Madagascar"s rice economy into the world market, the sources of and appropriate policies for dealing with domestic rice price instability, and possible policies and investments for improving domestic market integration and lowering costs. This is followed by a section about prospects for a rice-based accelerated growth strategy. It discusses domestic production possibilities and raises questions about the expected impact of marketing and international trade reforms on rice production. The report concludes with a series of recommendations regarding the need for additional information and for components of a data monitoring system which will help clarify some of the issues raised here and provide evidence regarding the economic response to reforms in the rice economy. (Author abstract)