Madagascar: how one woman helped save an entire village from hunger

Loharano’s natural grace conceals the hard work she does to prevent the unfolding tragedy in the southern region of Madagascar from also impacting her village.

A prolonged drought has left 1.3 million people with difficulty finding food. About 28,000 inhabitants in a situation of malnutrition.

However, Tsimanananda village, where Loharano is a community leader, has escaped the worst.

To get there, you have to make a hard 45-minute trip from Ambovombe, the regional capital of Androy, one of the areas most affected by reduced rainfall in recent years.

A 4×4 vehicle can barely travel on sandy roads. The view through the dusty windshield reveals a landscape of desert dunes, devoid of trees and exposed to strong winds.

It’s hard to imagine anything growing in this place. But Tsimanananda stands out in the landscape.

There Loharano’s smile lights up the space. She is short in stature and gentle. He quickly invites me to his home and makes me feel welcome.

“We are very hungry. We tried to plant, but it failed every time, ”says the 43-year-old woman, while recalling a previous drought that started in 2013.

This time, with the help of a local charitable organization known as the Centro Agroecológico del Sur (CTAS), things are not the same.

Shortly after my arrival, Loharano leads a short class in the shade of a tree.

Armed with a poster illustrating agricultural techniques, talks to her neighbors and her husband, Mandilimana, about drought-resistant crops and strategies to revitalize the soil.

“We have breakfast, lunch and dinner”

For the past seven years, CTAS gave away grains such as millet and sorghum, as well as a variety of local legumes, which grow well in sandy conditions and improve soil fertility.

He also taught the villagers to sow “windbreaker” plants to help protect crops from the ravages of nature.

“Now we have breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Loharano said proudly as she showed the plot where she and her husband farm.

At one end of the field are rows of millet, later beans, peas and sweet potatoes.

“We eat the husk of millet ground with sugar and this is the favorite food of children, their bellies are always full of millet,” he adds.

CTAS replicated this work in 14 other villages in southern Madagascar, where it had an impact on 10,000 homes, explained the same entity.

However, a small organization does not have the capacity to serve all the people who suffer from this problem in the region.

This is seen when returning to the regional capital, Ambovombe, which would look like a war zone.

In a small dusty field, dozens of families have pitched makeshift tents out of broken mosquito nets, sacks of rice and plastic sheeting.

There are about 400 people conglomerated after fleeing hunger.

Unlike Loharano, they were unable to grow food and had to sell their farms. They only had to survive.

Climate change controversy

But there are many more things that people have lost.

Mahosoa, who lives in the camp with his wife and 12 children, says that four of his little ones died at the start of the drought three years ago.

“They starved to death in the village. They died one by one, day by day. We didn’t eat for a week. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink ”.

Mahoso says that some of his children go out to beg in the town to buy food or water.

Meanwhile, he alleges that the government’s aid promises never materialize.

Although the authorities distributed food in the affected area, they also promised to promote a dozen infrastructure projects that could transform the area in the long term.

President Andry Rajoelina, however, has been criticized for not responding quickly enough to the crisis that for years has become more evident among the inhabitants.

Some locals attribute the lack of action of the state to a historical marginalization of the southern region of Madagascar.

During the war against the French colonialist army, the Antandroy [gente de la región de Androy] they fought against the French colonizers, they used guerilla tactics, ”says university professor Tsimihole Tovondrafale.

Because of this, he says that the French they were never interested in developing the region.

“They did not think about how to make roads, dig wells, for example, and that remains the policy of Madagascar from independence until now.”

The country’s environment minister does not think the same.

Baomiavotse official Vahinala Raharinirina alleges that the drought crisis is “originally” a problem stemming from climate change, not a political issue. The United Nations World Food Program agrees with this vision.

But a report by the World Weather Attribution organization, which analyzes the impact of climate change on events such as the drought in this African country, questioned the minister’s vision.

The study, which includes the work of Rondro Barimalala, a scientist from Madagascar, concluded that although rainfall has been scarce recently, the change in the pattern of precipitation cannot be attributed to the impact of humans.

Although regardless of the origin of the drought, thousands of people will live its consequences.

Loharano, through his teaching work in the village to which he belongs, contributes to avoiding the impact that many are currently living around the southern part of the island.

Despite his efforts, he affirms that it hurts him to see how others do not have help.

“I feel sad for them because they could starve to death. One day someone had nothing and I asked why. He said they hadn’t eaten since the day before. So I told him to take some of my peas and feed his children. “