Betsihaka or Betsiaka is a rural municipality in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. It is part of the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Ambilobe Ambilobe which means "Where there are many plantations" is an urban municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Ambilobe, which is a part of Diana Region. The town is the capital of Ambilobe district, and according to 2018 census ...

, which is in the

Diana Region Diana is a region in Madagascar at the northern part of the island. It borders the regions of Sava to the southeast and Sofia to the southwest. It covers an area of 19,266 km2, and had a population of 889,736 in 2018. The regional capital is ...

. According to the 2001 commune

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the population of Betsihaka was 10,661. The genus ''

Triadobatrachus ''Triadobatrachus'' is an extinct genus of salientian frog-like amphibians, including only one known species, ''Triadobatrachus massinoti''. It is the oldest member of the frog lineage known, and an excellent example of a transitional fossil. I ...

'', an extinct amphibian, was discovered there. Only primary schooling is available in the town. 60% of the population are farmers, while an additional 38% receive their livelihood from raising livestock. The most important crop is

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

; other important products are

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and seeds of

catechu ( or ) is an extract of acacia trees used variously as a food additive, astringent, tannin, and dye. It is extracted from several species of Acacia, but especially ''Senegalia catechu'' (previously called ''Acacia catechu''), by boiling the ...

. Industry and services each provide employment for 1% of the population.

Roads

Betsiaka is situated on the National road 5a.

Protected areas

* Andrafiamena Andavakoera New Protected Area

References and notes

Populated places in Diana Region {{DianaMG-geo-stub