Antananarivo Province

Antananarivo Province is the hinterland that feeds the fortress. This 58,283 km² highland plateau produced the rice surplus that funded the Merina kingdom's expansion—and still supplies 30% of Madagascar's population from terraced paddies carved into hillsides centuries ago. The province boundaries formalized in the 20th century traced something older: the extent of Merina kingdom territory unified under King Andrianampoinimerina (1787-1810). The highlands west of the capital became the rice factory, an engineered landscape of terraces, irrigation canals, and carefully managed water flows. While the capital Antananarivo controlled power, the surrounding province controlled food production. The rice plains west of the city fed the urban population; the hillsides supplied specialty crops and timber. French colonizers recognized this relationship and maintained provincial boundaries that reflected agricultural watersheds, not arbitrary lines. The province's 5.37 million people in 2004—nearly 30% of Madagascar's total population—concentrated where water and soil met Merina engineering expertise. French colonial administration from 1896 intensified agricultural production to export rice, transforming subsistence terraces into commercial farms. The rail link to Toamasina built in 1913 meant provincial rice could reach global markets, but it also locked the highlands into dependency on coastal infrastructure. Post-independence, the province's manufacturing base grew around Antananarivo city, particularly textile EPZs in Antsirabe and surrounding districts. By 2000, the province produced both agricultural commodities and manufactured textiles, making it Madagascar's economic core. The 2007 constitutional referendum dissolved the six provinces, replacing them with 22 smaller regions. But Antananarivo Province persists as a statistical entity, its boundaries still used for economic data collection. The administrative ghost remains because the underlying economic reality hasn't changed: this highland plateau still produces the rice, textiles, and industrial output that defines Madagascar's economy. Today, the former province area remains Madagascar's demographic and economic center. Rice terraces engineered 300 years ago still operate using gravity-fed irrigation, though climate change brings unpredictable rainfall patterns. The textile industry concentrated around the capital employs 400,000 across the province, all dependent on Toamasina port 370 kilometers away. The province's 30% population share creates resource pressure: land degradation, deforestation, and water table depletion increase as population density rises. The April 2025 US tariff crisis hits the province hardest—textiles from Antananarivo and Antsirabe face 47% duties, threatening the manufacturing base that replaced agriculture as the province's primary economic engine. The highland breadbasket faces a test: can rice production sustain population growth while textile manufacturing contracts under tariffs? Administrative dissolution in 2007 fragmented governance, but the economic unit persists. By 2026, food security and manufacturing employment compete for the same labor force and land base.