Concepts of Wellbeing Among Organic Farmers and Plantation Workers in Madagascar

Abstract

Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique. It became a French colony in 1896 but regained independence in 1960. Since the 1990s, Madagascar has followed a World Bank- and IMF-led policy of privatization and liberalization. It is currently experiencing a fair amount of political turbulence. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-fourth of GDP and employing 80% of the population. To understand better how Malagasy people themselves define their quality of life, I employed three Malagasy researchers who were knowledgeable and experienced in participatory research methods and were familiar with the local community selected for the study. The Betsisimaraka, 'we who are many', are of mixed ethnic descent and mostly live on Madagascar's rainy hurricane-prone east coast some distance from the large city of Tamatave (Toamasina in Malagasy). This is an important ricegrowing area, and a wide variety of other crops are grown such as coffee, bananas, cassava and garden vegetables like tomatoes. Almost all research activities were conducted with separate groups of women and men by a Malagasy researcher of the same gender. I usually accompanied the female researcher in her work with women and mixed groups, though occasionally I was present at activities held with men only. Research was conducted with two groups: smallholder organic farmers and with plantation workers. The smallholders farmed their small plots in an isolated region near Brickaville. They harvested cinnamon for Phaelflor, a small private Malagasy-owned organic company exporting essential oils to the USA and Europe. First order distillation of the cinnamon oil took place locally with further refinement in the capital Antananarivo. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supported this endeavor, since it is seen as a way of preserving important forest biodiversity by encouraging economic use of the buffer zone between the forest and farmland. Research continued with plantation workers at Plantation MonDesir (PMD), which is located close to the town of Fenerive (Fenoarivo) and tourist resorts like Mahambo. Plantation Mondesir produced organic oils, spices and black pepper for use in European cosmetic and meat processing industries. Permission to move around the smallholder communities was sought from the male village heads, the Tangalemena. These meetings were crucial in establishing rapport and in providing initial insights into the constraints facing each community, into locally relevant quality of life components, and beyond this into the quality of life aspirations of the smallholders and plantation workers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)