High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is the mainstay of the Madagascar economy and the country has a great potential for growth in the sector. In 2009, agriculture accounted for 24% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while commerce and services accounted for 55%. Agriculture employs more than 70% of the labour force and provides livelihoods to the vast majority of about 20 million inhabitants, contributing more than 70% to export earnings, mostly through the export of seafood (mainly shrimps), vanilla, coffee, cacao, litchi, pepper, cotton, tobacco, groundnut, sisal, clove and ylang-ylang. Industry features textile manufacturing and the processing of agricultural products. Growth in output in 1992–97 averaged less than the growth rate of the population. Growth has been held back by a decline in world coffee demand, and the erratic commitment of the government to economic reform. Formidable obstacles stand in the way of Madagascar's...