Rice is Madagascar's staple food, and the per capita rice consumption is among the highest in the world. In Madagascar, rice is mainly cultivated by smallholders in low fertility soils with no external inputs such as mineral fertilizers. As a result, rice productivity remains low and the gap between rice production and consumption is widening at the national level. We have evaluated genetic resources from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) genebank, and identified loci associated with low soil fertility tolerance for total panicle weight per plant, straw weight, total plant biomass, heading date and plant height. A donor carrying total panicle weight loci was identified and crossed to a local variety, to initiate variety development through a combination of marker-assisted selection with selection on-farm to improve rice yield under local cultivation conditions.

The approach of increasing zinc (Zn) concentrations in edible parts of food crops (Zn-biofortification) is a global breeding goal to alleviate Zn malnutrition, which particularly affects small children that need it for proper development. Because the Zn concentration in polished rice is usually too low to provide a sufficient proportion of the daily Zn intake, Zn deficiency is widespread in households where rice is the staple food and where people cannot afford to diversify their diet by adding mineral-rich fruits, vegetables, and meat. We used a genomic prediction model to predict Zn concentrations in 3000 genetic resources and selected potential high-Zn donors for experimental validation and subsequent biofortification breeding in Madagascar.

Malnutrition has major lifelong consequences for children. In this issue, we present a paper that looks at the diversity of agricultural production, food diversity, and its impact on children's nutritional status in rural Madagascar, looking at the diversity of each farmer's agricultural production, food diversity, and its impact on children's nutritional status.

The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) is leading a study aimed at understanding the diversity of traditional African vegetables used by Malagasy farmers, assessing their conservation status, and exploring opportunities for income generation and increased consumption. Details of the study supported by the Darwin Initiative are presented in an article by Ritha Luoga and Sognigbe N'Danikou published in the WorldVeg website.

Madagascar is known for its rich ecosystem and rare flora and fauna, but it is less known that agriculture in this country is based on rice cultivation and rice consumption is more than twice as much rice as Japan. Meanwhile, rice productivity remains stagnant and has hindered poverty reduction in rural areas, making Madagascar one of the poorest countries in the world. Factors that impede rice productivity include the lack of money for fertilizer purchases due to poor farmers, and the poor nutrient environment resulting from weathered soil peculiar to Africa. Therefore, JIRCAS is conducting projects with local research institutes with the aim of developing technology that can improve rice productivity in a stable manner even under conditions where the nutrient supply from fertilizer and soil is small. As a recent research highlight, we developed a localized fertilizer management technique, phosphorus dipping that can efficiently increase rice yields under the typical rice-growing environment of the country.