Photographer Ed Kashi puts Madagascar in the frame

For the Malagasy, rice represents life. In this photograph, locals plant young shoots in flooded fields
Photograph: Ed Kashi

A woman sells bananas outside her home in a rural village
Photograph: Ed Kashi

Some Malagasy men make a living breaking rocks for gravel and building materials
Photograph: Ed Kashi

Meanwhile, women collect water from tiny pools in the fields. The lack of water is causing crops to fail
Photograph: Ed Kashi

Farmers check their dead corn stalks. They now rely increasingly on fishing, but overfishing has depleted the fish stocks
Photograph: Ed Kashi

Burning the forest to clear it for planting is illegal, but local farmers continue to do it out of necessity
Photograph: Ed Kashi

The relative of a woman who recently died stands before her granite memorial in the ancestral burial grounds
Photograph: Ed Kashi