Disappearance and permanence of urban agriculture in Antananarivo

This paper analyses the spatial extent of agriculture in Antananarivo. Depending on the landscape units (agri-urban units), the cultivated area is decreasing, the same or increasing. In the city centre, cultivated land is decreasing but at a slower pace that what is usually estimated. In the agricultural lowlands at the urban front, the evolution of the extent of agricultural land is related to the infrastructure. Finally in the less densely populated urban areas, buildings and cultivated lands are expanding at the expense of pasture. The urban system is producing an intensification of agricultural practices. Urban agriculture mapping is feeding urban policy debates.