With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laure Verneau

According to current Malagasy law, foreign investors do not have the right to become owners of land in Madagascar. To encourage their arrival and thereby stimulate the private sector, slowed by two years of pandemic, the World Bank proposes to liberalize the Malagasy land market.

For Marcelle Ayo, representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an organization of the World Bank Group, in Madagascar: "Of course Malagasy people should first own their land, but there is enough room for larger agricultural operations. It is also to make the legal framework clear for foreign investors who in any case circumvent this prohibition. It makes everyone lose money."

Fear of repercussions on small farmers

For the Tany collective, quite the opposite, such a measure would endanger the economic, cultural and social rights of Malagasy people. Three-quarters of the population live from land work, the collective recalls. The inequality between large companies and the smallest local farmers would be unbearable.

" Ensuring better access to land so that local communities can live with dignity and feed the nation cannot be confused with the establishment of "land markets" in neoliberal style," the Tany collective denounces further.

To modify the Malagasy land regime, it would also be necessary to change two controversial laws. Civil society is concerned about an unscheduled presentation of these already amended texts to the National Assembly during the current parliamentary session.

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