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.