Testing: New Agriculturalist: Country Profile - Mauritius

This article was published by New Agriculturalist in November 1998. Click here to access the whole article.

Mauritius is a small, but densely populated island situated in the Indian Ocean, about 500 miles (800km) east of Madagascar. The island consists of a series of volcanic hills rising to a height of between 2000 and 2600 ft (600 - 800m) with a fringing coastal plain. The country has a tropical maritime climate generally dominated by the south-east trade winds and enjoys a warm moist summer during the months of December to May and a cool dry winter from June to November. During the wettest months tropical cyclones occasionally strike the island or pass near enough to give very heavy rainfall and violent damaging winds.

On the discovery of the island in 1598, the land was covered with dense vegetation with a variety of trees. These began to decline under the three successive colonisations by the Dutch (1638-1710), French (1715-1810) and the British (1810-1968). Large areas of forest were cleared to make room for agriculture when the Dutch Governor, Van der Stel, introduced various seeds and fruits to the island. Thus, vegetables, rice, indigo, tobacco and sugar cane were cultivated to feed the population and for export.

Until the 1970s, Mauritius had a predominantly agricultural economic system, based on a mono-crop - sugar cane. With the advent of industrialisation in the '80s and diversification of agriculture, the Mauritian economy rested on a broader base. However, sugar cane still remains the most important agricultural export followed by flowers and vegetables.

Statistics suggest that sugar cane covers about 88% of the cultivable land, 7.5% is under vegetables, fruits and flowers, 3.6% under tea and 0.6% under tobacco. With the implementation of the agricultural diversification policy, sugar cane is intercropped with bean, potato, groundnut, tomato and maize. The results have proved encouraging with the country producing 67% of its needs in potato, 40% in onion, 17% in garlic and 5% in maize. However the contribution of agriculture, the national economy has registered a significant decline with a reduction of the GDP from 23% in 1970 to 9% in 1994, mainly as a result of the rapid expansion of manufacturing, tourism and services. Nevertheless, the sugar industry is the second most important net foreign-exchange earner partly because it requires few imports.