Evaluating the Efficacy of Agricultural Interventions in Northeast Madagascar

Regenerative agroecology promotes a suite of methods that diversify farmers’ techniques, crops, and income-generating opportunities. Many low- and middle-income countries struggle with food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty, relying on natural resources for their livelihoods. In Madagascar, we led agroecology interventions, sharing locally grounded technologies to increase productivity and regenerate biodiversity. We evaluated the short- and medium-term outcomes using a mixed-methods social science approach. We monitored a cohort of over 500 participants in 27 rural communities who trained in market vegetable farming and poultry husbandry between 2019 and 2025. For participants in market vegetable and poultry husbandry interventions, over half adopted new technologies, reporting positive experiences, though outcome achievement varied. Participants in the market vegetable interventions reported they had the knowledge and skills to practice sustainable agriculture, remarking that the hands-on demonstrations and practice facilitated learning, as well as the accessibility of resources for implementation. Women were 1.68× more likely to adopt vegetable farming than men (multinomial regressions, gender log odds = 0.53, p < 0.01), while there was no difference in genders in adoption of poultry husbandry (gender log odds = 0.28, p > 0.05). Most (95–98%, n = 1012) responded they were satisfied with the results of the interventions and would continue to use the skills they learned. Insights generated by this program evaluation led to the following recommendations and improvements: (1) more hands-on demonstrations compared to classroom presentations; (2) more frequent medium-term consultations with participants; (3) introducing microcredit mechanisms to combat cost-related barriers; (4) diversifying outreach approaches. Implementing these recommendations continues to improve outcomes as we scale our interventions.

Duke Scholars

Author James P Herrera Duke Global Health Institute