Madagascar

How much does Madagascar produce?

FAOSTAT's 2024 figure is 248,208 tonnes from 41,109 hectares, a yield of 6.0 t/ha.

Area rose from 38,145 hectares in 2010 to a peak of 43,013 in 2018 and was 41,109 in 2024. FAOSTAT's yield climbs by a few kilograms every year, from 5,893 kg/ha in 2010 to 6,038 kg/ha in 2024, which points to an estimated rather than a surveyed series, so year-to-year changes cannot be read from it. No more recent government estimate was found in the sources reviewed. A CIP study of 13 sub-Saharan countries, including Madagascar, found production could rise by 140 percent if the causes of the yield gap were addressed.

Source: FAOSTAT (QCL production series, trade matrix, food balance sheets). CIP yield-gap study (2013-2016).

Where and when is potato grown?

Vakinankaratra, in the central highlands at 1,000 to 2,200 metres, grows about 80 percent of the crop.

In a 2022-2023 survey of 259 plots in five districts of Vakinankaratra (Ambatolampy, Antanifotsy, Antsirabe II, Betafo and Faratsiho), irrigated rice was the crop just before potato on 97.8 percent of off-season plots: the potato goes into the paddy once the rice is cut. Rainy-season potatoes followed sweet potato, upland rice or maize. Most plots are under 300 square metres. The wet season brings about 1,350 mm of rain at 14 to 26 °C, and the dry season 9 to 23 °C with little rain. Analamanga, around Antananarivo, also grows potato. Production figures for Itasy, Amoron'i Mania or other regions were not found in the sources reviewed, and neither was any assessment of cyclone damage to the potato crop.

Source: Ravalisoa, Deberdt et al. (University of Antananarivo, FOFIFA, CIRAD, FIFATA), Cahiers Agricultures 2025, 34:33, citing FAOSTAT for the 80% share; Rasamiravaka et al., Crop Protection 2017.

Which varieties, and where does seed come from?

The local short-cycle Bandy Akama covers about 65 percent of the highland potato area, and most seed is saved from the last harvest.

Bandy Akama is valued for hardiness and tolerance of bacterial wilt; improved varieties such as Meva and Maneva take about 120 days. FIFAMANOR, the national potato centre, manages certified basic seed and the selection of seed growers, and Ceffel also supplies seed, but certified seed is limited, so growers sell uncertified seed and farmers exchange it. FIFAMANOR released about ten wilt-tolerant cultivars from CIP germplasm, which have since become susceptible. The off-season crop supplies much of the seed for the rainy season. In 2024 Madagascar imported 7.5 tonnes of seed potatoes worth $12,390 (UN Comtrade).

Source: Ravalisoa et al., Cahiers Agricultures 2025; Ravelomanantsoa et al., Frontiers in Plant Science 2018, 8:2258; World Bank WITS / UN Comtrade, HS 070110 importers 2024.

What does Madagascar eat and trade?

Food supply is 4.6 kg per person (2023), and potato is a lean-season food that replaces rice before the rice harvest.

Fresh potato trade is negligible next to the 248,000-tonne crop, and the islands nearby buy their potatoes elsewhere. Mayotte took 92.2 percent of its potato imports from mainland France in 2021, though Madagascar is its largest vegetable supplier, mainly of onions and taro, and a 2025 Mayotte order does not allow seed potatoes from Madagascar. Reunion's 2025 import review gives no potato figure for Madagascar, which sent it about 2,600 tonnes of onions. Figures for potato trade with Mauritius or the Comoros were not found. FAOSTAT's last producer price is 610,000 ariary a tonne ($301) in 2011, and no later price was found. Potato's place in the diet next to cassava, and storage practice, are not covered in the sources reviewed.

Source: FAOSTAT (QCL production series, trade matrix, food balance sheets). World Bank WITS / UN Comtrade (HS 070190, HS 200410); Agreste / DAAF Mayotte 2022 and Arrêté 2025-DAAF-0230; Agreste / DAAF La Réunion 2026; Ravalisoa et al., 2025 (lean season).

What challenges does Madagascar face?

Bacterial wilt has been a national problem since the 2009 epidemics, and EPPO lists it as present and widespread.

Of 1,224 bacterial wilt isolates from 74 highland sites sampled in 2013, about 72 percent were phylotype IIB-1, the cold-tolerant Andean brown rot strain, first reported in Madagascar and probably brought in with imported potatoes. It spreads in symptom-free seed tubers, while the local phylotype III strains stay in their own areas. The authors say production has fallen by 30 percent, without giving the period, and that major basic seed fields are infested. Since 2009 the disease has also hit irrigated crops in rice fields. In the 2022-2023 survey, incidence ranged from 0.1 to 45 percent of plants; compost, raised beds and cutting the haulms before harvest went with lower wilt, and leaving crop residue on the plot with more. Farmers also report leaf spots (lagaly); they treat with chemicals in 95 percent of cases, mostly the fungicide mancozeb whatever the symptoms, which does not work on bacteria. Late blight is not measured separately in the sources reviewed. See the bacterial wilt and late blight pages.

Source: Ravelomanantsoa et al., Frontiers in Plant Science 2018; EPPO Global Database (RALSSL, Madagascar, 2018); Ravalisoa et al., Cahiers Agricultures 2025; Rasamiravaka et al., Crop Protection 2017, 102:49-55.

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Deeper Potatopedia references on seed systems, processing, varieties, and global potato production.