Madagascar has taken a significant step towards modernising its agricultural sector with the launch of a national digital agriculture platform and a suite of digital services designed to improve farm productivity, strengthen climate resilience and expand access to market information for millions of farmers.
The initiative, unveiled on June 30 during a national workshop in the capital, Antananarivo, forms part of the country’s broader strategy to accelerate agricultural transformation through digital technology. The programme is being implemented jointly by Madagascar’s ministries responsible for agriculture, livestock and digital development, with technical and financial support from the World Bank through its Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF). At the centre of the initiative is a new digital public infrastructure for agriculture, designed to improve interoperability between agricultural, livestock and fisheries data systems while strengthening national ownership and governance of agricultural information. The platform aims to establish a unified digital ecosystem capable of supporting evidence-based policymaking, improving service delivery and enhancing coordination across the agricultural sector.
Alongside the digital infrastructure, authorities introduced three flagship digital services aimed directly at supporting farmers. The first is a national farmer registry, which will establish a single database of agricultural producers across the country. The registry is expected to improve the targeting of agricultural support programmes, facilitate access to financial services and subsidies, and strengthen planning for both government agencies and development partners. The second service combines a real-time agricultural market information system with weather alerts, enabling farmers to monitor commodity prices while receiving early warnings about changing weather conditions. Improved access to both market and climate information is expected to support more informed production and marketing decisions while helping farmers prepare for increasingly frequent climate-related disruptions.
The third service is a digital agricultural advisory platform that will provide location-specific recommendations tailored to farmers’ crops, local climatic conditions and production practices. By delivering customised guidance through digital channels, the platform seeks to improve crop management, increase productivity and strengthen resilience against climate variability. According to Madagascar’s Ministry of Agriculture, the new tools are intended to reduce information gaps that have historically limited agricultural productivity while improving farmers’ ability to respond to weather-related risks and changing market conditions.
Development of the digital solutions has been entrusted to three technology companies operating under the technical supervision of NextA, an advisory organisation supporting the implementation of the country’s digital agriculture programme. The initiative extends beyond crop production. Authorities are simultaneously advancing digital innovations within the livestock sector, including smart beehive monitoring systems and digital animal health surveillance tools designed to improve cattle disease management and livestock productivity. The launch reflects growing recognition across Africa that digital technologies are becoming increasingly important instruments for agricultural transformation, particularly as climate change intensifies production risks and food security challenges.
Agriculture remains central to Madagascar’s economy. According to the World Bank, the sector contributes nearly 30% of national gross domestic product, generates approximately 40% of export earnings and provides livelihoods for almost 70% of the country’s workforce. Yet despite its economic importance, the sector continues to face persistent structural challenges, including low productivity, limited mechanisation, inadequate extension services, fragmented markets and high vulnerability to climate change. Recurring droughts, cyclones, erratic rainfall and land degradation continue to undermine agricultural output, affecting both rural livelihoods and national food security. These pressures have increased the urgency of investing in technologies capable of improving productivity while strengthening farmers’ capacity to adapt to changing climatic conditions.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), digital agriculture has emerged as one of the most promising tools for transforming food systems by expanding farmers’ access to information, financial services, markets and extension support. Mobile applications, digital advisory services, satellite monitoring and climate information systems are increasingly enabling farmers to make more informed production decisions while improving agricultural efficiency.
Madagascar’s initiative forms part of this broader continental transition towards digitally enabled agriculture. Over recent years, governments across Africa have accelerated investments in digital agricultural ecosystems that combine data infrastructure with farmer-focused digital services. Countries including Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria have introduced digital farmer registries, e-extension platforms, electronic input distribution systems and digital marketplaces aimed at improving agricultural competitiveness and food security.
These investments align with the African Union’s broader agenda to leverage digital innovation in achieving agricultural transformation under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), while supporting progress towards the continent’s food security and rural development objectives. Madagascar has been developing its national digital agriculture roadmap over several years in collaboration with the World Bank and the FAO. The roadmap seeks to establish the governance structures, technical standards and institutional capacity necessary to support large-scale deployment of digital agricultural services nationwide.
Central to the strategy is the principle of data sovereignty, ensuring that agricultural data generated through digital systems remains securely governed while enabling interoperability across public institutions and private sector service providers. For policymakers, integrated agricultural data systems offer opportunities to improve planning, monitor production trends and better target public investments. For farmers, digital platforms can reduce information asymmetries, improve access to advisory services and strengthen connections to financial institutions and agricultural markets.
The initiative also reflects a growing understanding that agricultural transformation increasingly depends not only on physical infrastructure such as irrigation and roads but also on digital infrastructure capable of supporting innovation, efficiency and resilience. The World Bank has consistently argued that digital technologies will play an increasingly important role in improving food systems across developing economies by lowering transaction costs, expanding financial inclusion and enabling climate-smart agriculture. However, successful implementation will depend on several factors, including reliable internet connectivity, mobile phone access, digital literacy, affordable digital services and sustained institutional coordination. Ensuring that smallholder farmers who account for the majority of agricultural producers can effectively utilise these technologies will be critical to achieving the programme’s development objectives.
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For Madagascar, the digital agriculture initiative represents an important milestone in modernising one of the country’s most economically significant sectors. By integrating market intelligence, weather forecasting, farmer registration and digital advisory services into a unified platform, the government is seeking to create a more productive, resilient and data-driven agricultural system.
For Africa more broadly, the initiative demonstrates how digital public infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important component of agricultural policy. As climate change, population growth and food security pressures intensify across the continent, digital technologies are expected to play an expanding role in helping governments build more resilient food systems capable of supporting inclusive economic growth and sustainable rural development.
