It is the second largest rice producer in the African-Indian Ocean region.
Agriculture is essentially rice-based.
Rice is the preferred staple, a major ingredient in every meal, and is culturally important for the Malagasy people. Wetland soils are primarily oxisols, ultisols, entisols, inceptisols, and to some extent, histosols with varying levels of organic matter, low base status, and high contents of soluble iron. Rice double-cropping is not common primarily because of low temperature and lack of irrigation water. Eucalyptus, cassava, taro, beans, and maize are grown on the slopes above ricefields. Usually, however, fields cultivable in the dry season are flooded in the rainy season.