Indispensable to almost all Malagasy homes, rice is one of the most popular cereal foodstuffs in Madagascar. No day goes by without this famous grass in Malagasy.
Arrived, according to the most probable hypotheses, with the first arrivals from Indonesia, rice quickly became the first necessity product of the island by the force of history and human displacements on the island.
Currently, rice is a basic product that almost the majority of Malagasy households could not do without because it is the staple food of an entire people. Like many Asian countries. Only difference, in Madagascar, the rice is cooked as it is. It is not prepared in flour or other than to make cupcakes to enhance everyday life.
For breakfast, it is cooked like a soup and improved with a few vegetables and dried meats or, depending on the location, fish. It is called the “sosoa maraina”.
For lunch, it is called “vary maina” or dry rice and it is always accompanied by broth as well as what is locally called “laoka” or “kabaka” depending on the region. It's about the same for dinner, but each household has the choice of a light meal for the night or a very substantial one to flatten the mat as the expression "manindry tsihy" says.
Anyway the majority of the island swears only by rice and a day without rice is like an empty day for a Malagasy.
Currently, rice is unfortunately one of the expensive products that the local majority can no longer afford because average incomes are no longer sufficient to buy the necessary daily shares.
If until the 1970s, the island was among the largest exporters, several factors mean that this is no longer the case today: Decline in production, due to the exodus; the collapse of the international price; increase in local demand; decrease in arable and cultivable land. Paradoxically, one of the largest consumers of rice per capita (nearly 500 g per day) on the planet currently has to import this commodity.
Guides 08/03/2020
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