MADAGASCAR RICE CROP ESTIMATED HIGHER IN 1987

  Madagascar's vital rice crop is
  estimated at 2,286,000 tonnes of paddy this year, up from
  2,138,000 in 1986, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
      The Trade Ministry said rice imports quadrupled in local
  currency value during the first nine months of last year as the
  government established a buffer stock of the country's staple
  food.
      Rice imports increased to 82.4 billion Malagasy francs
  during the first nine months of last year from 20 billion in
  the same period of 1985, the ministry said, without disclosing
  the tonnages involved.
  

