Antananarivo, June 2022 – During a two-day multi-stakeholder consultation workshop in Antananarivo, the FAO Madagascar project team drew the attention of state and non-state actors to the challenges the city region food system (CRFS) of Antananarivo is facing.  

FAO Madagascar (Programme) Assistant Representative, Mr Philibert Rakotoson, emphasised the need to radically change the way food is produced, processed and consumed. While intensive agriculture in the region helps to feed the population of Antananarivo by increasing crop yields, it also accounts for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Director of Cabinet of the Urban Commune of Antananarivo, Mr Guy Razafindralambo, stressed that it is necessary to move things forward with the means available, reiterating the City’s commitment to convert the available land in public primary schools into vegetable gardens to supply school canteens and become training sites for urban agriculture practices. 

On the first day of the workshop, six brainstorming thematical groups based on the essential food system nodes (production, processing, distribution, consumption, waste disposal and governance) discussed the desired vision for the food system transformation in Antananarivo and its surrounding areas. The debate concluded that the city region food system should ensure year-round availability of and access to healthy and nutritious food for all, actively support local value chains to reduce unemployment and social inequalities, as well as safeguard the natural ecosystem. 

The second day was devoted to identifying priority actions to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable and resilient food system. These include territorial planning, land tenure security, environmental protection, setting up production and market infrastructures, inter-institutional coordination as well as adoption of innovative and climate-resilient farming techniques.  

During the closing ceremony, the representative from the Analamanga Region, Ms Mbola Ratsiharovala, congratulated FAO for the rich lessons identified in the workshop and promised to exercise her leadership to ensure full participation of grassroots communities in the project. After synthesis of the results by the CRFS project team, an action plan and strategy will be validated during the next participatory workshop on action planning to be hold in July 2022.