1. Introduction
In the Malagasy highlands (region of Vakinankaratra), the
increasing demand for rice combined with increasing land pressure in lowland areas has led to the extensive cultivation of
upland rice on the hillsides. In the mid 1990s, new upland rice
varieties suitable for cultivation at high altitudes (from 1200 to
1800 m asl) were developed by FOFIFA (Malagasy Research for
Rural Development) and CIRAD (French Agricultural Research for
Development) meaning that rice could be cultivated on hillsides
where farmers had formerly grown corn, beans or cassava (Dzido
et al., 2004; Raboin et al., 2011). The cultivation of upland rice
by local farmers has expanded very rapidly in the last 15 years,