Maevatanana is an urban 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 ...

. The city is in the central-north part of the island, at the Ikopa River, and is connected by the national road RN 4 to

Antananarivo Antananarivo (Malagasy language, Malagasy: ; French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known ...

and

Mahajanga Mahajangā (French: Majunga) is a city and an administrative district on the northwest coast of Madagascar. The city of Mahajanga (Mahajanga I) is the capital of the Boeny Region. The district (identical to the city) had a population of 258,068 ...

. The altitude is low and as it is located far from the coast, temperatures tend to be high. The city belongs to 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 ...

of Maevatanana, which is a part of

Betsiboka Region Betsiboka is a region of Madagascar. It borders Boeny Region in north, Sofia in northeast, Alaotra-Mangoro in east, Analamanga and Bongolava in south and Melaky in west. The capital of the region is Maevatanana. Until 2009 Betsiboka belonged t ...

. Maevatanana is the capital of the

Betsiboka Betsiboka is a region of Madagascar. It borders Boeny Region in north, Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha ...

region, and the population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 24,000 in 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 ...

. In addition to primary schooling the town offers secondary education at both junior and senior levels. Maevatanana hosts the annex of the University Institute of Management and Administration (IUGM) of the University of Mahajanga. The town has a permanent court and hospital. The majority 60% of the population of the commune are farmers, while an additional 7% receive their livelihood from raising livestock. The most important crops are

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 ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

; also

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

es are an important agricultural product. Industry and services provide employment for 5% and 15% of the population, respectively. Additionally fishing employs 13% of the population.

Infrastructure

Route Nationale 4 The Route nationale 4 is a trunk road ( nationale) in France between Paris and the frontier with Germany. Reclassification The RN 4 has been re-classified around Nancy as the RD 400 as through traffic is now directed onto the Autoroutes A 31 and ...

from

(329 km) to

(249 km).

Rivers

Maevatanana lies between the Ikopa River and the Betsiboka River.

Mining

There are important gold mining operations near the town where 20 kgs of gold are extracted weekly.L’or, le mal malgache !
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References

{{coord, 16, 57, S, 46, 50, E, display=title Cities in Madagascar Populated places in Betsiboka Regional capitals in Madagascar Gold mines in Madagascar