In Madagascar, due to the large variety of soil types and climatic diversity, farmers are able to grow wide variety of crops including coffee, cloves, sisal, maize and tubers. Rice is the dominant food crop and is grown in the central plateau, eastern forests and lower river valleys and estuaries. Once self-sufficient, the country has been a net-importer of rice since 1980.
Agriculture accounts for almost 30% of Gross Domestic Product, 40% of export earnings and employs more than 70 per cent of the labor force. About 5% of the land area is cultivated at any given time, of which 16% is irrigated. The average farm size is 1.3 hectares, with most farmers practicing subsistence agriculture. It is worth noting that Madagascar is the largest producer of natural vanilla. According to the new agriculturist website, Madagascar produces 60% of the global supply. As you may notice from figure 1, the majority of cultivable land in the nation is sown in rice Figure 1 and Malagasy culture and politics are symbolically structured around rice. Also there seems to be a direct correlation between the positive impacts of the World Bank on some areas. By assisting agricultural productivity the indicators for poverty and food insecurity seems to improve.

Other limiting agricultural factors are natural hazards (cyclones, droughts, locust invasions) and destructive farming practices, which cause soil to erode and soil quality to decline, limit crop production. In 2000, a series of three devastating cyclones affected more than 1 million people and caused nearly US$85 million in damage to agricultural infrastructure. Also A locust plague that began in April 2012 endanger the livelihoods of 13 million people, roughly 60 percent of the population.

Here is a map