BackgroundRural households in the Mahafaly region of semi-arid SW-Madagascar strongly depend on the exploitation of natural resources for their basic needs and income regeneration. An overuse of such resources threatens the natural environment and people’s livelihood. Our study focuses on the diversity and use of wild yams and medicinal plants.MethodsWe hypothesized that knowledge on the use of these resources highly depends on farmers’ socio-economic household characteristics. To test this hypothesis, an ethnobotanical survey was conducted based on semi-structured interviews recording socio-economic base data and information on local knowledge of medicinal and wild yam species. This was followed by field inventories compiling plant material for botanical identification.ResultsSix species of wild yam and a total of 214 medicinal plants from 68 families and 163 genera were identified. Cluster and discriminant analysis yielded two groups of households with different wealth status characterized by differences in livestock numbers, off-farm activities, agricultural land and harvests. A generalized linear model highlighted that economic factors significantly affect the collection of wild yams, whereas the use of medicinal plants depends to a higher degree on socio-cultural factors.ConclusionsWild yams play an important role in local food security in the Mahafaly region, especially for poor farmers, and medicinal plants are a primary source of health care for the majority of local people. Our results indicate the influence of socio-economic household characteristics on the use of forest products and its intensity, which should be considered in future management plans for local and regional forest conservation.

Rural households in the Mahafaly region of south-western Madagascar have to contend with low economic development and a risky natural environment. A survey of 665 households in the region was designed to address three research questions: what is the relationship between diversification of income sources and household wealth; how does education influence access to non-farm income sources and diversification; and how does household wealth and diversification affect well-being?The results show that the overwhelming majority of households follow a diversification strategy. Household wealth is associated with larger fields, greater crop diversity and higher diversification of income source categories. Education enhances access to high-return, non-farm income sources. Self-reported well-being is positively affected by both wealth and diversification. Better education and measures to improve inhabitants' existing strategies for compensation of yield losses in farming are crucial for securing local livelihoods in the face of decreasing precipitation due to climate change.

The northeastern SAVA region of Madagascar is the largest vanilla producing area in the world and is flourishing due to a large global demand for natural vanilla. Although the general socio-economic situation has regionally improved because of high vanilla prices, little is known about the nutritional status of local vanilla farmers. We used a 12-month longitudinal food survey to analyze food security, food consumption and nutrient intake of local vanilla farming households (n = 140). Food consumption data was complemented with baseline, agro-economic, longitudinal and field-plot information to determine factors influencing food security, and the contribution of protein from Animal Source Food (ASF_protein) to household nutrition using a stepwise generalized linear model. Results show a high level (74%) of food insecurity and micronutrient deficiency but an acceptable level of protein intake among surveyed households. Consumption of rice, the principal source of carbohydrates, is stable across the year. Compared to other regions in Madagascar, local diets are moderately diversified with an acceptable share of ASF_protein (about 50%). Household size (P < 0.001) and cash income from rice sales (P < 0.001) were the most important factors influencing the food security index (FSI), while cash crop income (P < 0.01) and number of income sources (P < 0.01) were more important in the explanation of the dietary share of ASF_protein. Yet, neither livestock ownership nor contracting with vanilla buyers/exporters did improve food security of the surveyed households. Households who concluded contracts were significantly less food secure than non-contracting households (P = 0.01) with seasonal fluctuations across the year. Policy implications of our findings are that, although many actors of the vanilla value chain run social and environmental programs in the SAVA region, more needs to be done to improve diet quality at household level and strengthen farmers’ resilience to food insecurity.

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