Abstract
Land in the drier part of Madagascar is predominantly used as grassland, which has been created through pastoralism. African pastoralists like Cushites and Nilotes are supposed to have migrated to Madagascar in the early part of the first millenium, and to have engaged in pastoralism and millet cultivation. They also brought in cultural elements like the megalithic tomb, the notched stele, and the offering of a great number of cattle to the dead.
Millet was perhaps cultivated in two different ways : irrigated cultivation and dry cropping. Vary tsipy, which is now practiced by the Bara tribe, gives a clue to understanding how the early migrants practiced irrigated millet cultivation. The characteristic features lie in the combination of (1) irrigation on sloping ground, (2) cattle-trampling, (3) broadcasting of seeds, and (4) treading-in of the broadcast seeds by another trampling. Asiatic rice, which probably reached to Madagascar later in the course of trading contacts with Malayo-Polynesian peoples, was incorporated into this millet cultivation system. Wet rice cultivation seems to have expanded to the valley floor only recently.
Dry cropping of millet has been done in the drier south and southwestern parts where annual rainfall is less than 500mm. The characteristic features are (1) scraping off of grasses with a paddle-shaped hoe, (2) dibbling of seeds into holes made by the hoe, (3) fertilizing soils with cattle dung which are applied by penning cattle in the garden.
