Vary mangitry, or pink rice from the North, is a traditional luxury rice variety. While agricultural policies have favored foreign or hybrid rice seeds for decades, deemed more productive, several traditional Malagasy varieties continue to survive in rural areas. Inherited from generations of farmers, they remain cultivated in certain regions despite their low yields.

The phenomenon is particularly visible in the Central Highlands where some ancient varieties continue to be grown on a small scale. Among them are notably varivato, variharonga, varivaventy, varindinika, varidiavolana, varirojomena, varilavoataniratsy, varirojofotsy, varimaintisomotra, and varilavasomotra.

These names already appear in the "Ombiasy Manuscript," preserved at the Malagasy Academy. This document lists the main crops practiced between 1864 and 1866, before the profound agricultural transformations introduced during the colonial period. More than 160 years later, the majority of these varieties have disappeared from rice fields, but some still persist in specific localities.

In Ambohibary, near Antsirabe, farmers still cultivate varirojo. In other regions, local seeds like vary latsika continue to be preserved by a few producers attached to ancestral practices.

Their main advantage does not lie in yield. These varieties are especially appreciated for their taste, culinary qualities, or adaptation to specific terroirs. Their reputation is often passed down from generation to generation. The case of "pink rice," or vary mangitry from the North, illustrates this lasting attachment to local varieties.

According to an agronomist who requested anonymity, the generalization of improved seeds is gradually contributing to the decline of traditional varieties. "Since the 1990s, foreign seeds have been presented as the solution to increase production. Yet the progressive disappearance of local varieties raises the question of preserving our agricultural heritage," he argues.

The promotion of high-yield seeds is part of an old policy. As early as the 1980s, food self-sufficiency was already among the priorities of the 1986-1990 Five-Year Plan.