Madagascar President Rajolina stated on February 3 during a Chinese hybrid rice distribution ceremony in Tanambé, a town in the Alautra Mangulu region—one of Madagascar’s key rice-producing areas—that the use of Chinese hybrid rice will significantly boost national rice production and help achieve the country’s food self-sufficiency goal as soon as possible. He added that cultivating hybrid rice is expected to increase farmers’ annual income by approximately 6 million Ariary per hectare. The government plans to distribute hybrid rice seeds across 12 major rice-producing regions in the country, aiming for a total cultivation area of 50,000 hectares.
President Rajolina also noted that a series of complementary agricultural development measures would be implemented, including increasing arable land through new dam constructions and introducing modern agricultural machinery such as harvesters and threshers to improve rice harvest efficiency. According to reports, Madagascar imported 200 tons of hybrid rice seeds from China for the first time this year. The ceremony was attended by China’s Ambassador to Madagascar, Ji Ping, and officials from the Madagascar Presidential Food Sovereignty Secretariat, who together distributed seeds to more than 1,300 local farmers.