Positions Available8DescriptionThe work of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar, working as a Food Security Promoter, is essential, collaborative, and growth promoting. You will work alongside Malagasy farmers, promoting soil improvement techniques, small gardens, and tree growing. Your work will support community nutrition centers, where mothers bring their children to be measured and plotted on growth charts. You will work with these women to introduce nutrition information and how to use local foods to enrich their diets for growth and health promotion.You and your counterparts will collaborate with community members to promote food security through agriculture-based income generation. Working with community members to develop their capacity to grow nutrient dense foods, and transform these foods into products for family consumption and for sale, will strengthen household economic security and resilience. The ability of families to break the generational cycle of malnutrition will allow their children to receive proper nutrition during their critical first 1,000 days, which will lay the foundation for their future ability to grow, learn, and succeed.Madagascar's economy depends on agriculture, and women, even more than men, farm and garden to produce food for their families, and to sell. Seasonal rainfall and a tropical climate allow for many types of food to grow, yet a large percentage of the population suffers from chronic malnutrition, unable to access nutrient rich foods on a daily basis. Challenges include inflation, lack of employment, poor roads, lack of access to quality seeds, lack of access to water, poor soil quality, cyclones, floods, and limited food availability in local markets.To address these challenges, you will work with motivated community partners including local agricultural associations, women's groups, secondary schools, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Your local supervisor will likely be the mayor of the community, and you will do your work in collaboration with local counterparts. You and your counterparts will use a participatory approach to assess local knowledge, resources and needs, and to identify the most appropriate activities to address local food security challenges. These activities may include:
Co-teaching food transformation and preservation techniques to increase income earned from harvested crops
Organizing cooking demonstrations and trainings on nutrition and diversified diets to improve infant and child health
Planting community and school gardens
Creating local seed banks for farmers to contribute and receive quality seeds
Co-teaching composting and other soil quality improvement techniques
Peace Corps is committed to addressing environmental challenges, and you will support the Malagasy government's promotion of sustainable farming practices as part of their efforts to achieve national food security, focusing on methods that increase productivity and strengthen environmental adaptation and resilience.In addition to your primary work, you may also work on secondary projects that meet community needs, such as an English club, youth leadership clubs, or malaria prevention activities.Request Type117 Agriculture and Forestry ExtensionPostMadagascarRequired SkillsQualified candidates will have an expressed interest in working in agriculture and one or more of the following criteria:
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field
OR
5 years' professional work experience
Start Date28-Aug-2026Desired SkillsHighly competitive candidates have extensive experience in one or more of the following:
Agronomy, Horticulture, Agribusiness, Agroforestry, Food Security, sustainable agriculture practices or crop production fields
Experience in a variety of farming techniques
Experience in nutrition education and promotion
Food transformation or value-added products
School garden experience is highly desirable
Living ConditionsMadagascar is the 4th largest island in the world. Its terrain is diverse and the climate can change drastically. It's one of 17 mega-diverse countries in the world. Volunteers live throughout the east coast, the highlands, the southeast, and mid-south where living conditions can vary greatly from one community to another. Volunteers should be flexible, resilient, and willing to live very modestly. Food Security Promoters typically live in small villages, often with a population less than 2,000.
Housing: Volunteers live in private one or two-room houses. Housing materials vary by region, with walls made from local wooden material in coastal areas and bricks in the highlands. Volunteers have individual outdoor bath houses and latrines, but often no running water or electricity. Some families in the community may have access to generators that can provide electricity/battery recharge, but that is not standard and it is easy to buy solar panels and batteries locally.
Communication: Most communication is conducted by cell phone. You'll have an opportunity to buy your phone during Pre-Service Training if you did not bring an unlocked phone. Call costs are based on the minutes used, texts sent and are deducted immediately. Incoming calls and texts, even from the U.S., are free. It's possible to access very slow internet or messaging apps through the purchase of local data plans.
Transportation: On a case-by-case basis, Peace Corps Madagascar may provide a bike, helmet, and bicycle maintenance training to assist you in daily routines. You may also be required to walk or bike between 3 to 10 kilometers to reach a main road or an outlying village where community partners live and work, and for long distances between towns, you take bush taxis.
Food: Rice is the staple. Other foods include cassava, potatoes and corn. Meat and fish could be expensive or difficult to find depending on the region. Fish is more present on the coast and meat in the highlands. If meat or fish are unavailable, a variety of beans and peanuts can be used as protein sources. Vegetables vary by region, but most are produced in the highlands. Madagascar is graced with wonderful, though seasonal, fruits. During the off-season, specific fruits may be unavailable and unevenly distributed across the country. You will do your shopping at the local market, but some items might have to be purchased at a larger town nearby.
Vegetarians and vegans may face challenges and should be mindful of food customs. Turning down a plate of food because it has meat may be seen as rejecting a gift. Volunteers have found it possible but difficult to maintain a vegetarian diet.The Malagasy are generally tolerant, although values concerning sexual orientation are conservative. Same-sex marriages are not permitted under Malagasy law. Volunteers will need to be mindful of cultural norms and use their judgment to determine the best way to approach sexual orientation in their communities. Staff and currently serving Volunteers will address this topic during Pre-Service Training and identify support mechanisms for incoming trainees.Language RequirementNoneLanguage Skills Additional InformationVolunteers will be required to learn the Malagasy language or a dialect. It is essential for successful Volunteer service. Trainees who do not reach minimum language skills by the close of Pre-Service Training may not be sworn-in as Volunteers.In a very limited ways, French language skills can be useful in some types of situations in the country. Volunteers will not use French in their daily lives and work, but French is often a transactional and technical language. For example, newspapers, restaurants, tourist activities, or technical reports by partner organizations may utilize French. Peace Corps Madagascar does not provide French language training.Primary SectorAgricultureAccepts CouplesYesCouples CommentsMadagascar can accept heterosexual couples. Your partner must qualify and apply for one of the following positions:Community Health and Youth EducatorFood Security PromoterEnglish Education TeacherMadagascar is a patriarchal society, so the male is often seen as the head of the family. Some couples will often face situations where the community seeks to first listen to the husband. Couples have to find their own culturally appropriate strategies to engage their co-workers about their views on women and girls' empowerment. As in many patriarchal societies, women may perform comparable labor, but have limited social, economic, or political power. Therefore, couples are supported by staff, peer support network, and community partners on effectively supporting each other when navigating these different expectations of the societal roles of boys and girls.Apply By01-Jan-2026Know By01-Mar-2026Language Requirements InformationThere are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position. Please take a moment to explore the Language Comments section below to find out more on how local language(s) will be utilized during serviceTotal Number of Positions Available8Assignment Length (months)24Accepting Applications?YesProgramPCVTEFL certificate programNoClimate Change Volunteer Activities (Public Information)As an Agriculture Volunteer, you will be trained on best practices for smallholder agriculture to improve household food security and nutrition and adapt to a changing and uncertain environmental context. As the impacts of environmental degradation and unsustainable natural resource management practices become more evident, the social, economic, and environmental contexts that smallholder farmers operate within will continue to change. This will add to the challenges of smallholder farming, particularly for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.As an Agriculture Volunteer, you will be trained to support food security and livelihood improvement while increasing community resilience and adaptation to global change through your activities. These activities will:
Promote the adoption of improved, appropriate, and adaptive agricultural practices and technologies that increase productivity, including practices that:
Improve soil health by utilizing compost made from organic waste
Preserve and enhance forests, biodiversity, and ecosystems
Build and strengthen household resilience by integrating and diversifying existing and new agriculture-related income-generating opportunities
Improve household nutrition, particularly that of the most vulnerable household members
Agricultural extension Volunteers can work with lead farmers, NGOs, community-based organizations, schools, and key community members to promote a variety of sustainable agricultural practices. To promote healthy nutrition, Volunteers work with household decision makers (e.g., mothers) and co-conduct nutrition trainings and cooking demonstrations. Peace Corps Madagascar provides training on these activities to ensure that enthusiastic generalists with limited agriculture and nutrition background are equipped to support their community.Post to LinkedIn?NoIdentify as new initiative on PC website?Special leave
