The Lake Alaotra area is a Madagascan rice bowl with many soil and climatic constraints. Through sustainable agricultural development, research bodies have disseminated conservation agriculture (CA) techniques with the BV-Lac development project from 2003 to 2013. As defined by the FAO in 2008, CA has three principles: (1) minimum soil disturbance, (2) soil protection by vegetation cover and (3) crop rotation and plant combination, which requires a double paradigm shift in terms of cropping patterns and strategies. A survey conducted in 2013/2014 showed that during the project, farmers adapted CA techniques to their own constraints in a long learning process leading to a continuum of practices between conventional agriculture and CA through recombination of knowledge.