The agricultural activity carried out by Tozzi Green Madagascar confirms an entrepreneurial identity handed down from generation to generation, aimed at the integrated and sustainable growth of the local area.

In line with the Group’s family roots, linked to the farming culture, Tozzi Green Madagascar sees productive agriculture as an essential tool for the development of the areas in which it operates.

The entrepreneurial strategy is based on the conviction that “a surplus capable of going beyond subsistence triggers industrial transformation processes ”

Franco Tozzi

In Madagascar, the effects of climate change were particularly noticeable in the southern areas during the two years under review. Over the last five years, rainfall has progressively decreased and become erratic. Faced with a disappointing yield from maize cultivation in 2022, the company decided to use the results of many years of scientific research in the field to replace it with other species with low water demand and more resistant to locust attack (sorghum and millet). At the same time, experiments with teff, a cereal with low water demand that is widely cultivated in Ethiopia, began, and seed selection and production was enhanced. Indeed, Madagascar lacks local seed producers who adopt a scientific approach. The development of affordable indigenous production to replace very expensive imports is an interesting market potential.

As part of its agricultural activities in Madagascar, Tozzi Green Madagascar has always pursued biodiversity conservation and development objectives through the use of sustainable agricultural techniques, such as crop rotation, and by constantly monitoring the level of biodiversity in the region. For example, in collaboration with the Madagascar Biodiversity Centre (MBC), arthropod (ant) populations are monitored as an indicator of biodiversity levels.

FOI has developed several crop varieties in the Ihorombe region, in the Ihosy district, on land that has long been abandoned because it is difficult to farm. The crops were selected on the basis of their ability to adapt to the characteristics of the soil and the local climate, and after several years of preparation of virgin land that had never been farmed before, using a mechanical tillage protocol, green manure and crop rotation to improve soil structure and fertility. These improvement programmes involved initial costs but did not immediately generate income for the farmers. However, after several years of experimentation, Tozzi Green Madagascar has succeeded in planting a variety of crops. Unfortunately, the results of these agricultural activities have been adversely affected in recent years by a massive reduction in rainfall, which has impacted, and continues to impact, all of southern Madagascar. Rainfall has become increasingly scarce and erratic, forcing the company to significantly reduce cereal cultivation. Therefore, in order to be able to continue its activities in the region, to make use of the many major technical and economic investments that have become necessary over the years, and to guarantee the payment of salaries to the staff employed, Tozzi Green Madagascar, through its subsidiary JTF, was forced to look for an alternative project that would meet everyone’s expectations.