In Madagascar, the collective Tany, from civil society, opposes in a press release that foreign investors can become owners of Malagasy land. Yet this is what the International Finance Corporation (IFC) recommends in a report. The implementation of this recommendation, according to civil society, could have ultimately negative repercussions on Malagasy agriculture.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laura Verneau
Under current Malagasy law, foreign investors are not allowed to own land in Madagascar. To encourage their arrival and thereby stimulate the private sector, slowed down by two years of pandemic, the World Bank offers therefore to liberalize the Malagasy land market.
For Marcelle Ayo, the representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an organization of the World Bank Group, in Madagascar: “ Of course the Malagasy have to own their land first, but there is enough room for bigger farms. It is also to make the legal framework clear for foreign investors who anyway circumvent this prohibition. It wastes everyone’s money. »
Fear of repercussions on small farmers
For the Tany collective, on the contrary, such a measure would endanger the economic, cultural and social rights of Malagasy people. Three quarters of the population live from working the land, recalls the collective. The inequality between big business and smaller local farmers would be unsustainable.
“ Ensuring better access to land so that local communities can live in dignity and feed the nation cannot be confused with the establishment of “land markets” neoliberal sauce “, denounces the Tany collective again.
To modify the Malagasy land system, it would also be necessary to change two controversial laws. Civil society is concerned about an impromptu presentation of these already amended texts to the National Assembly during the current parliamentary session.
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