title: The Persistence of Self-Provisioning Among Smallholder Farmers in Northeast Madagascar.
abstract: In the Andapa region of northeast Madagascar, smallholders cultivating swidden hill rice (tavy) for subsistence are pressing against neighboring nature reserves. A dominant policy approach to reducing this pressure requires that smallholders abandontavyand purchase rice from proceeds obtained from their environmentally sustainable commercial crops, vanilla and coffee. Economic liberalization policies have succeeded in stimulating the expansion of these commercial crops, but have failed to reducetavyproduction. We ask why this dual (subsistence and commercial) production system persists. We test two explanatory views: that either market imperfections deny farmers full entry into the market, or that internal production goals or socio-cultural norms create barriers to full market participation. Results support the latter view, although not for reasons that have been associated with this view in past studies. We propose a new factor that may serve as a barrier to full-market immersion among Andapatavyfarmers, the social relations of property.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography and Global Studies, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA USA.
authors.forename: Rheyna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laney
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning & School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Turner
keywords: Africa; Agricultural change; Commercialization; Dual production systems; Food security; Induced intensification; Madagascar; Self-provisioning; Subsistence; Swidden