Setting up

On October 11, 2021, the Malagasy government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE) submitted a request to IFAD to mobilize PARM technical assistance to support Madagascar in its strategy to strengthen the resilience of the Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral and Fishery sector to agricultural risks, which are becoming more frequent and severe.

To this end, in January 2022, IFAD-PARM welcomed this interest and announced the approval of PARM’s donors to provide technical assistance to the country.

In February 2022,  PARM Secretariat and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock agreed on on roadmap process for PARM interventions in Madagascar. In April 2022, PARM and MINAE signed an Aide-Mémoire outlining the main interventions of PARM’s assistance to the Malagasy government, as follows

• A first phase on the analysis and assessment and characterisation of agricultural risks, through a study based on the holistic methodology developed by PARM, either of the Malagasy agricultural sector, of one (or more) value chain, or on a geographical area (to be determined with MINAE). This first phase should be based on the validated agricultural risk profile and be complementary to other studies, notably on the analysis and evaluation of agricultural risks;
• A second phase on the identification of ARM tools in response to the priority risks identified in the previous phase;
• A third phase on knowledge sharing, capacity building and skills of key ARM actors;
• A fourth phase, which is the final goal of the previous steps, consists of the development and conceptualisation of concrete and fundable ARM projects and programmes (or the strengthening of existing ones), to be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, and the mobilisation of donors for the implementation of the designed projects and programmes.

Risk Assessment

PARM supported MINAE in conducting a risk assessment study using a value chain approach, the newly PARM methodology that assesses agricultural risks along the entire value chain. In Madagascar, the Agricultural Value Chain Risk Assessment Study (AVC-RAS) focused on maize and groundnut commodities, respectively as a food and nutritional security commodity crop and an agricultural export crop. The two crops aligned with the Malagasy agricultural priorities. The preliminary results of the AVC-RAS have been presented and discussed in May 2023 during a knowledge management workshop and a technical meeting with the participation of relevant ARM stakeholders who shared their contributions to enhance the study content.

In September 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock validated the final results of the AVC-RAS, including insightful highlights such as key recommendations and the vulnerability score that has been assessed through a calculation assigning a 60% weight to risk exposure and a 40% weight to risk management capacity. The final report of the study “Etude d’évaluation des risques agricoles à Madagascar dans les chaînes de valeur Maïs et Arachide” (in French) has been published in November 2023, marking the path to the design of an investment project for the implementation of risk management tools identified and prioritized by the government based on the results of the study.

Design of Programme/Project

As part of the process of developing an investment project in Agricultural Risk Management, the PARM project design mission took place from 02 to 20 October 2023 in Madagascar to consult key stakeholders in the agricultural sector and collect relevant data to feed the project components.

On 4 October 2023, PARM has consulted technical and financial partners, private sector players and other key players in the country’s agricultural sector and rural development in the occasion of a pre-design workshop held in Antananarivo. The exchanges helped in guiding the design of the Agricultural Risk Management Project for Inclusive Growth and Resilience (GRACIR) in Madagascar by gathering the contributions of the participant actors.

The components and sub-components of the GRACIR project have been discussed during a technical meeting on 18 October 2023 bringing together more than 50 participants from government entities (MINAE, Ministry of Finance and the Economy, central bank, etc.), technical and financial partners, the private sector and farmers’ organizations with the aim of collecting their contributions and enriching the content of the project components and sub-components. On 19 October 2023, an Aide-mémoire was signed by the Secretary General of MINAE, Fanja Raharinomena and PARM Technical Expert, Jean-Claude Bidogeza.

The GRACIR project (Gestion des Risques Agricoles pour la Croissance Inclusive et la Résilience) will be co-formulated by PARM, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in close collaboration with MINAE. GRACIR is structured around three components: (i) strengthening the upstream (production and productivity), (ii) strengthening the downstream (stimulating investment downstream of the value chains) and (iii) creating an environment conducive to risk management and support functions for the sector. These components also include cross-cutting aspects such as gender, youth and nutrition. The GRACIR project will guide the next steps in the PARM process in Madagascar.

Learning

To ensure the capacity building of local actors, PARM organized in November 2022 the first training cycle on ARM which aimed to raise awareness among stakeholders. The ultimate goal was to institutionalize ARM into university curricula and private sector practices (producer organizations and microfinance institutions). More than 40 participants attended the meeting. The second training cycle on ARM took place from 05 to 08 June 2023 with the presence of 39 participants, among which 56% of women. This workshop is a Training of Trainers (ToT) addressed to training structures, government officials, key players active in value chains, and financial institutions to train them on risks, risk assessment and ARM tools and strategies. The final aim is to integrate such knowledge into university curricula, training programs and the practices of farmers’ organizations (FOs) and the private sector, as well as to provide ongoing support for the ARM training needs of government bodies in Madagascar.

To promote direct behavioural change in rural areas for a better management of agricultural risks following PARM’s holistic and value chain approach, PARM has organised, from 28 November to 1 December 2023, a training of trainers workshop on ARM in Antsirabe in the Vakinankaratra region of Madagascar. The training was exclusively dedicated to trainers affiliated to rural organizations and welcomed 26 participants, including 14 women, from training centers, universities, producer organizations, including farmers, as well as representatives from the private and public sectors.

With the aim of guaranteeing a sustainable impact of Capacity Development (CD) and a substantial transfer of competencies in ARM, PARM has kicked off its Institutionalization (INST) pilot project in Madagascar. In that context, a capacity development workshop is planned to be held online from 16 to 18 April 2024 for the benefit of the: (i) the Agricultural Support and Professional Training Center (CAFPA) of Antsirabe; (ii) the Malagasy Mutualist Savings and Credit Company (SMMEC); (iii) and the University of Itasy (working in collaboration with the University of Antananarivo), alongside PARM’s focal points from the ministries of the respective countries.

Sharing

On 4 May 2023, PARM organized a knowledge sharing and learning workshop bringing together national and international actors in the agricultural sector, to showcase initiatives on Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) that are related to the selected value chains in the country, and to foster policy dialogue between different public and private actors operating along these value chains.The following day, PARM presented and discussed the preliminary results of the VC-RAS focused on maize and peanut, during a technical workshop held in Antananarivo, that gathered the interministerial technical committee put in place by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE). The VC-RAS aimed to identify and prioritize the main risks affecting the two commodities value chains using a quantitative and qualitative holistic approach and value chain methodology.