Madagascar, la Grande Île, is a place on earth with some most peculiar natural features. The current degraded status of its soils is unfortunately less unique. The vulnerable environment suffers from the increasing pressure of the growing population. Cropping on slopes causes erosion. Soil fertility is low, and soil nutrient inputs are needed. The concept of Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been introduced as the way to fight worldwide soil degradation and change soil mining agriculture into a more sustainable system. At this time, the concept is used on 6-7% of the world’s cropland (FAO, 2009). The adoption rate among African smallholders has been very limited. This is the starting point for the EU-project CA2AFRICA. It aims at examining the conditions that determine success or failure of CA (CA2AFRICA, 2009). The project uses three scales to analyze CA: field, farm/village and regional. This research is focused on the scale of farm and village. This research focuses on the highlands in the region of Vakinankaratra. NGO’s and scientists have undertaken activities to introduce CA, but so far the practices have not been implemented on a large scale in the highlands. The research has been carried out from June to September 2010. This thesis starts with an introduction to the subject. After that the research context is described, and the problem and the research questions are defined. Then the research methodology is outlined and the theoretical framework is presented. Thereafter the results of the survey are presented and discussed. Finally the conclusions are drawn.

Madagascar, la Grande Île, is a place on earth with some most peculiar natural features. The current degraded status of its soils is unfortunately less unique. The vulnerable environment suffers from the increasing pressure of the growing population. Cropping on slopes causes erosion. Soil fertility is low, and soil nutrient inputs are needed. The concept of Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been introduced as the way to fight worldwide soil degradation and change soil mining agriculture into a more sustainable system. At this time, the concept is used on 6-7% of the world’s cropland (FAO, 2009). The adoption rate among African smallholders has been very limited. This is the starting point for the EU-project CA2AFRICA. It aims at examining the conditions that determine success or failure of CA (CA2AFRICA, 2009). The project uses three scales to analyze CA: field, farm/village and regional. This research is focused on the scale of farm and village.This research focuses on the highlands in the region of Vakinankaratra. NGO’s and scientists have undertaken activities to introduce CA, but so far the practices have not been implemented on a large scale in the highlands. The research has been carried out from June to September 2010.