While Madagascar remains a major exporter of seafood, domestic fish consumption has declined. Freshwater fish farming — ponds, rice–fish systems and cooperative tilapia — is becoming a quiet pivot in the blue economy, strengthening rural households’ resilience to poverty and climate shocks.

The central question is this: in a blue economy long structured around shrimp and export fisheries, can freshwater fish farming become a genuine shock absorber for Malagasy communities?

“Household fish farming is one of the few levers that can simultaneously secure animal protein, smooth cash income and diversify risk for small rural producers.” — Researchers from the PADM project, study on aquaculture in Madagascar, Sustainability

From Madagascar’s blue economy to freshwater fish farming’s room to grow

The World Bank’s country environmental analysis notes that Madagascar has one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the Indian Ocean and one of the longest coastlines in Africa, with rich marine ecosystems (mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass) that support key sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and maritime transport. Within this framework, the World Bank recalls that fisheries account for a significant share of gross domestic product and exports, making marine resources a pillar of the economy and of coastal employment, yet already exposed to climate change and overfishing. This historical focus on capture fisheries leaves freshwater aquaculture in a still peripheral position, but with strong resilience potential.

The same analysis stresses the need for an integrated blue economy approach: marine spatial planning, a national blue economy strategy, and improvements to the investment framework and incentives for emerging sectors such as aquaculture. A FAO factsheet on aquaculture growth potential in Madagascar finds that, although national aquaculture output has increased over the long term, production is still dominated in volume by export-oriented marine products and seaweed, which limits direct impacts on domestic food security. Taken together, these findings shift attention towards inland fish farming as an underused link in the blue economy value chain, one that speaks directly to household income and diets in rural areas.

Fish consumption is falling in a country rich in marine resources

According to the FAO WAPI factsheet released in 2024, Madagascar’s aquaculture production rose from about 7,980 tonnes in 2000 to 16,396 tonnes in 2021, but aquaculture’s share in total fisheries production remains modest and has even declined proportionally in recent years. The same source indicates that the apparent consumption of fish and seafood per capita declined over two decades, falling from around 6 to 8 kg in the late 1990s to about 4 kg in 2019, placing Madagascar among the lowest fish-consuming countries in Africa. This decline in consumption in a country with strong fisheries potential highlights a gap between export value and national food security.

The FAO also notes that Madagascar’s aquatic exports increased in value between 2000 and 2021, driven mainly by tuna and shrimp, with export receipts rising in parallel with higher imports of fish products. A 2023 academic study in Sustainability recalls that, despite this macroeconomic weight, Madagascar faces very high multidimensional poverty, affecting a large majority of the population and limiting poor households’ access to animal protein. This twin dynamic — export upgrading and stagnant or falling domestic fish consumption — reinforces the case for fish farming geared to domestic markets and short value chains.

Freshwater aquaculture: a direct lever on income and food security

The study on small-scale freshwater aquaculture in rural Madagascar highlights this segment’s importance for household income and food security: surveyed fish farms, often embedded in integrated systems (rice–fish farming, livestock, crops), make a significant contribution to annual income when farmers have access to extension services and inputs. The authors find in particular that membership in a cooperative, on average, more than doubles fish-based income — by a factor above 2 — compared with non-members, through pooled purchasing, more secure market access and technical support along the production cycle. This correlation strengthens the view that collective organisation is a key determinant of resilience for small fish farmers.

The same research shows that polyculture systems — for example combining Nile tilapia with common carp in ponds — generate, on average, significantly higher fish-farming income than monoculture by making fuller use of the water column and diversifying feeding niches. Households engaged in fish farming also display better food security and diet diversity scores, with a positive association between consumption of farmed fish, education levels, women’s role in decision-making and the likelihood of being food secure. Household-level fish farming thus appears not only as a source of additional cash flow, but also as a nutritional safety net during periods of stress on staple crops.

Public policy is starting to fold fish farming into the blue economy

On the policy side, the study notes that the Malagasy government has anchored aquaculture in several strategic frameworks, including a blue policy letter, the sectoral Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Programme (PSAEP) and, above all, a National Aquaculture Strategy for 2021–2030, which emphasises inland aquaculture development to support rural incomes and food security. The World Bank, for its part, describes the creation of a Ministry of Fisheries and the Blue Economy and the preparation of a national blue economy strategy and marine spatial plans as key milestones to steer investment towards resilient, low-carbon sectors, including aquaculture. This institutional recognition of aquaculture’s role in the blue economy creates an opportunity to connect freshwater fish farming to emerging blue-finance and regulatory instruments originally designed for marine sectors.

The FAO nevertheless underlines that aquaculture production excluding seaweed has declined since the mid-2010s, implying that growth in rural fish farming has not yet offset contraction in some commercial or industrial segments. The World Bank also flags spatial conflicts between aquaculture and sensitive coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, which are already under pressure from deforestation and conversion to agriculture or other uses. For fish farming to remain a resilience asset, its expansion will need to be aligned with ecosystem protection and avoid replicating the extractive trajectories seen in some shrimp industries.

Climate resilience and the scale-up challenge

World Bank work on climate and fisheries indicates that, at continental scale, Madagascar may be less affected than some African peers in terms of aggregate fisheries yield reductions, yet remains highly exposed to extreme coastal weather events that reduce the number of fishing days for small-scale fishers. In the inland regions covered by the PADM project, pond aquaculture and rice–fish farming offer diversification away from rain-fed crops, using short-food-chain species such as carp and tilapia that are less dependent on imported compound feed. This combination of lower direct exposure to storms and strong integration into agro-pastoral systems reinforces fish farming’s role as a household climate-resilience asset.

The study nevertheless points to major bottlenecks to scaling up: limited access to quality fingerlings, weak extension services, gaps in technical training, and gender and wealth inequalities that condition the ability to invest in ponds or integrated practices. FAO further notes that weak national aquaculture statistics systems and limited monitoring capacity make it difficult to run evidence-based policies, even though Madagascar is among the few African countries that managed to report aquaculture data consistently over recent years. Whether fish farming can take on a visible macro role in the blue economy will depend on how these productivity, governance and information constraints are tackled.

What to watch to assess whether Madagascar’s blue economy is really turning to fish farming

FAO scenarios suggest that, to meet future food demand without further degrading capture stocks, Madagascar’s aquaculture output excluding seaweed will need to increase substantially over the medium term, with a marked rise in freshwater fish farming. Empirical results from rural aquaculture show that cooperative organisation, integrated production systems and effective extension services can translate this ambition into real gains in income and food security for households. Key signals to monitor include effective implementation of the national aquaculture strategy, the degree to which smallholders can access blue-economy finance, and the authorities’ capacity to protect ecosystems while easing input and market constraints for freshwater fish farming.

• Key takeaways
• The current structure of Madagascar’s blue economy favours export-oriented marine products, while per capita domestic fish consumption has fallen over the past two decades.
• Small-scale freshwater aquaculture improves both income and food security for rural households, especially when organised through cooperatives and embedded in integrated agro-systems.
• Public authorities have started to anchor aquaculture in blue-economy and agricultural investment strategies, but aquaculture output excluding seaweed remains below potential.
• The main challenges lie in access to inputs, extension services, capital and markets, as well as in ensuring compatibility with conservation of ecosystems such as mangroves.
• Fish farming’s ability to become a resilience pillar will hinge on the concrete rollout of national strategies and the diffusion of productive models based on collective organisation and sustainability.

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