The zone of the Great South-East of Madagascar is affected for the first time by food insecurity, a consequence of the hurricane season at the beginning of the year which caused 206 deaths and 460,000 victims. In February, the passage of cyclones Batsirai and Emnati in the Southeast caused considerable damage to the livelihoods of the population. 638,000 people are in a situation of high acute food insecurity in this area.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laetitia Bezain
In the Atsimo Atsinanana, Vatovavy and Fitovinany regions, which make up the Great South-East of Madagascar, the aftermath of the hurricane season are still present. Food crops, such as rice and cassava, and cash crops, such as coffee, cloves, bananas, have been largely devastated. Mialy Caren Ramanantoanina, communications officer at the International Federation of the Red Cross – Indian Ocean, explains:
” All districts in the Greater South East, with the exception of Vangaindrano, are classified as crisis, while we are in the harvest period. This is the first time that there has been food insecurity in the Grand Sud-Est since this area is not as landlocked as the Grand-Sud area. There is no permanent drought situation in this region, so there are normally harvests. Communities are trying to recover. We try to provide support in terms of reconstruction, improved constructions and the distribution of cash for basic needs. A huge number of humanitarian actors responded to the emergency after the passage of cyclones, but there are not really any interventions focused specifically on this aspect of food insecurity. We need to mobilize more in this direction. »
In the district of Nosy Varika, food prices are constantly rising and many households can no longer fully meet their food needs, testifies Gérard, one of the inhabitants: ” There aren’t many helpers anymore and everyone is struggling here. Some sold their small harvest of rice to buy salt and clothes, for example. In the market, everything is expensive. The rice timbale costs 800 ariary. A hen cost 9,000 ariary before, now it’s more than double. All pepper and coffee crops were destroyed. People can’t get over what happened. »
Production losses and damage linked to the passage of cyclones are estimated at more than 160 million dollars, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization published in June 2022.