Rice price management in Madagascar: Joint action of information and multi-stakeholder dialogue

Abstract

The experience of Madagascar, where a consultation platform of the rice sector's stakeholders has been established jointly with a market information system, illustrates the complementarity between the contribution of a Market Information Service (MIS) in public decision-making and an approach of hybrid governance markets based on public-private participation and consultation. Going through the different crises that hit the rice market between 2004 and 2011, it appears that a steady monitoring of the market situation and an attempt of public-private partnership around regulation of the market led to a more transparent process of policy decision-making and more consistent market regulation measures. Despite a disturbed context, these two devices have contributed to greater stability of the domestic market and an increase in production during the years where they have been operating jointly. However, the main limits are the strong asymmetry between actors, the difficulty of defining the common interest, and the bias of public interventions in times of political crisis.