Projects in action > Ankarefo Village

Ankarefo village is located between the eastern coastal region and highlands of the centre part. It is about 100 miles from Antananarivo. The majority of populations are farmers.

They practice wet rice cultivation, its cycle begins with the repair of irrigation and drainage canals a ploughing up which is performed with long handled spade or hoe.

Slash and burn methods of bush cleaning and shifting cultivation are practiced, known as “tavy”.

The smaller trees and bush are cut down and left to dry, then burned just before the rainy season.

The cleared area is usually planted with mountain rice and corn.

After two or three years of cultivation, the fields are usually left fallow and are gradually covered by secondary vegetation known as savoka which is not benefit for the soil.

After ten or twenty years, the area may be cultivated again.

The soil in Ankarefo is very rich, and one of the important area which produce rice in Madagascar. However villagers have to face challenges: Bad road condition especially during rainy season, lack of health care condition, and persistent forms of illiteracy

As Ankarefo village is so insulated, villagers used to live in a the traditional way, practicing ancestors worshiping, and adopt in their everyday life the Malagasy way of living called “Fihavanana”, It is  concept of kinship, friendship,  goodwill between beings, both physical and spiritual. Furthermore, Fihavanana goes beyond “relationship”, Malagasy people strongly believe that how we deal with others will surely be echoed back to us. Accordingly, in Malagasy society, we should be upright about goodwill, for the sake of the world and humanity.
This attitude make Ankarefo society stronger, surely a way to defy as far as they are concerned the tough times in their everyday life and the administration that apparently have forgotten them since ages.