In Joffreville, a small town in Deigo Suarez, 32 kilometers from Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, Khat fields have sprung up everywhere. Many farmers here have abandoned their vegetable farms and rice paddies to make way for khat, a move that has raised concern in the region.
“The farmers have decided to stop farming vegetables, and they are now all planting khat because it brings in more money than planting vegetables.” Philipe, resident
Khat, also known as Miraa is a flowering plant native to east Africa. It contains cathinone, which makes it a popular form of stimulant and moderately addictive. Joffreville has around 5000 residents, and an estimated 70 percent of them consume Khat. Today the town produces around 30 percent of the khat that is consumed in the region of Diego Suarez. Local authorities say the plant’s quick turn over is one of the reasons farmers grow it over other crops – demand is high and so are the returns.
“I can now send my children to a better school, a private school and I can also afford to buy nice things for my house.” Velo Soamanjary Adeline, Khat Vendor
But Khat farming is slowly contributing to the decline of agriculture in the region, observers say. The crisis has also been compounded by the fact that Khat production requires a huge amount of water, leading to a shortage for use in food farms.
“There were no khat farms before and farmers could farm up to 10 tonnes of rice. But now that they are planting khat, those same farmers today cannot even produce 2 tonnes of rice because there isn’t enough water.”Saint Joseph Rikarika, Regional Agriculture Director
Around 4 tonnes of khat are sold daily throughout Diego Suarez city, the hub of the peninsular. With high levels of unemployment and poverty, chewing khat has become a part of life here.
Malagasy authorities recently announced plans to put in place measures to curb the production of khat because of it’s negative effects, but analysts say the cash-strapped government is too busy trying to rebuild its economy to put in place any effective policies any time soon.
