In Madagascar, it is a new case of land grabbing which is agitating the associations for the protection of small farmers. In the southwest, in an area called Bas Mangoky, some 2,000 farming families no longer have access to their farming plots, valued from generation to generation. According to the associations, instead of a census of these 6,000 hectares and then a restitution of the titled and demarcated plots promised by the local authorities, these lands would have been allocated to other people outside these communities. Among which, high authorities via nominees. Three farmers were incarcerated at the end of December “ for destruction of public property » after wanting to denounce these actions.
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With our correspondent in Madagascar, Sarah Tétaud
In their press release published yesterday, the peasant defense associations urge the State to open an investigation to shed light on this affair and “return land to peasants who are victims of land grabbing“. An affair that Fima (Fikambanan’ny Masikoro Arivolahy), an association signatory to the press release denounces and that its vice-president in Antananarivo Elia Rabevahiny summarizes as follows: “In 2015, immense work was carried out for the irrigation of this area which represents nearly 6,000 hectares. The new canal makes all these rice, kabaro, onion and cassava fields increase in value. But in 2022, these farmers who had occupied the land for generations, were told that there were other people who have titles, and who are the real land owners of this land now.”
High authorities cited
Among the names of these new owners, those of several high authorities are cited. Starting with that of the governor of the region, Atsimo Andrefana, Edally Ranoelson, who chairs the commission responsible for land reallocation: “This is a gratuitous and false statement. In this region of Lower Mangoky, I have no plot of land in my name and I have not had a house built either: this can be checked at any time! When it comes to a real estate thing like land, you can’t steal it because it can’t be mobilized or moved, he defends. If I had bad intentions, I could file a complaint in court for sullying me.”
“Land traffickers»
The governor, however, confirms that there was indeed an attempt to grab land by certain people whom he considers to be “land traffickers“. “My commissionexplains the head of the region, Atsimo Andrefana, decided to grant farmers who worked on five hectares or less all of their land.” For other requests, discussions are still ongoing.
For his part, Andriamanantena Razafiharison, new Minister of Higher Education and former president of the University of Tuléar whose name is also mentioned among the beneficiaries of land, also strongly denies this information which he considers to be “slanderous denunciations to mislead public opinion about his person“.
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