Very essential to almost all Malagasy households, rice is one of the most popular cereal products in Madagascar. No day goes by without this famous grass among the Malagasy people.
Imported, according to, the most probable hypotheses with the first arrivals from Indonesia, rice quickly became the island's first necessity product by the force of history and human displacement on the island.
Nowadays, rice is a staple product that almost the majority of Malagasy households could not do without because it is the staple food of a whole people. Like many Asian countries. Only difference, in Madagascar, the rice is cooked as it is. It is not prepared in flour or otherwise than to make small cakes to enhance the everyday.
For breakfast, cook it like a soup and improve it with a little vegetables and dried meats or depending on the location, with fish. It is called "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 pretty much the same for dinner but each household has the choice of a light meal for the night or a substantial one to smooth out the mat as the expression "manindry tsihy" says..
Anyway the majority of the island swears by rice and a day without rice is like an empty day for a Malagasy.
Nowadays, rice is unfortunately one of the expensive products that the local majority can no longer afford because the average income is no longer sufficient to buy the necessary daily portions.
If until the years 70, the island was among the biggest exporters, several factors mean that this is no longer the case today : Decrease in production, due to rural exodus ; the international price collapse ; increased local demand ; reduction in arable and cultivable areas. Paradoxically, one of the largest consumers of rice per capita (about 500 g per day) of the planet must currently import this food.
