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.

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This report compiles the results of field research conducted in Madagascar in 1986 and the analysis of rice varieties collected there, and aims to clarify the genealogy of rice culture in Madagascar in comparison with rice and rice culture in the Asian rice-growing countries.
 The area I visited is divided into four regions according to natural conditions and cultural background: the northern-central east coast, the southern east coast, the Central Plateau, and the northwest. Observation of conventional farming practices throughout the regions revealed a clear difference in rice-growing techniques between the east coast regions and the others. The former show a close resemblance to those of the Southeast Asian archipelago, while the latter include techniques which are thought to derive from Indian rice culture. The regional differences in rice-growing techniques suggest that rice culture was introduced into Madagascar in two currents: the ‘Malay’ current, which is evident predominantly in the east coast regions, and the ‘Indian’ current, which appears to have arrived later and infiltrated most of the country, replacing the ‘Malay’ type of culture.
 A total of 82 varieties collected in Madagascar was analysed for the following characters: grain type, coloration of grains by phenol reaction, degree of destruction of endosperm by KOH solution, and such growth characters as plant height, tillering ability, heading date, size of flag leaf, etc. Based on the intervarietal and regional variations of these characters, it is concluded that there are two major types of varieties derived from Asian origins: javanica and indica. The javanica varieties consist mainly of upland rice and are widely grown in the east coast regions, while the indica varieties consist of wet rice and are grown all over the country. The wider distribution of the indica varieties is attributable to the rather recent expansion of wet-rice culture to various areas of the island.
  In conclusion, it is suggested that there were two possible routes of introduction of rice culture into Madagascar: direct transfer of the ‘Malay’ type of rice culture to the east coast across the Indian Ocean from the Southeast Asian archipelago, and the later introduction of the ‘Indian’ type of rice culture, probably to the northern part of the island, from the Indian subcontinent.

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The Tsimihety people practice three forms of rice cultivation: shifting cultivation of upland rice, broadcasting cultivation of wet rice and transplanting cultivation of wet rice. The upland rice is not a staple and its annual yield is generally not high, but when cultivation is carried out by domestic labor forces in uphill areas where wet rice fields can not be opened with their irrigation technique, the cost performance of this shifting cultivation becomes maximal. The transplanting cultivation of wet rice is a newly introduced technique in the survey area, and the introduction of a new variety, IR-8, has more than doubled the general yield per hectare obtained by broadcasting conventional varieties. This high yield of transplanted rice is obvious to every peasant. However, the majority of peasants choose to adhere to conventional broadcasting with its small yield. This choice is neither conservative nor conventional but strategic, because individual peasants always take into account wider considerations such as the cost of labor, the developmental cycle of their own domestic group, and the geographical conditions of their own rice fields, in deciding whether to adopt transplanting cultivation.

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This paper provides supplimentary notes on the flexibility of ethnicity in the vicinity of Lake Alaotra Madagascar. It deals with a settlement, Befody, in the fringe area of the Sihanaka. Befody mostly consists of immigrant Betsimisaraka from the south and west. They identify themselves as Betsimisaraka; but out siders, mainly the Sihanaka, regard them a part of the Sihanaka. In actuality there are differences between Befody people and other Sihanaka in pursuing subsistence and in tomb-centered grouping: the Betsimisaraka are engaged in swidden cultivation as well as wetrice cultivation and tomb-centered groupings are not observed in Befody. Otherwise, they live a Sihanaka life. So their ethnicity becomes an arbitrary label.

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