Madagascar: Lower Mangoky Irrigation Area Rehabilitation Project
2 October 2012
African Development Bank: Compared to the rest of the country, southern Madagascar experiences cyclical droughts that threaten the population’s food security. In general, the country’s agricultural performance has remained weak, mainly due to low yields, poor basic infrastructure and lack of rural credit. To overcome these constraints, the government has developed sector policies and strategies that notably provide for the rehabilitation of irrigation areas such as the Lower Mangoky Scheme.
The Project
The Lower Mangoky Irrigation Area is located in the Morombe District in Madagascar’s Southwest Region, about 220 kilometres north of Tulear town. The irrigation area is supplied with water from the River Mangoky, which is the largest river in Madagascar, through an intake located 20 km in the river’s upstream. The development of the irrigation area began in the sixties. Before rehabilitation, the Lower Mangoky Irrigation Area was managed by Samangoky, a state-owned company. The Lower Mangoky Irrigation Area is currently the only one in Madagascar equipped with concrete and self-support irrigation canals right up to the plots.
The project is financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), through initial ADF and OPEC loans of UA 10 million and USD 8.8 million, respectively, finalized in December 2008, and a supplementary ADF loan of UA 15 million, which will be finalized end December 2015. The supplementary loan will finance the construction of a new water intake, replacing the existing outlet on the verge of breaking. This reconstruction will provide the opportunity to secure rice production and achieve further significant extension of the Lower Mangoky Irrigation Area estimated at 15,000 ha. The Bank has granted an advance of UA 500,000 in 2012 for the extension study. In addition, following damage caused by Cyclone Fanele, the Bank provided an emergency grant of USD 1 million in 2009 to repair the scheme’s protection dyke.
Category: Water