Mandritsara is a city and commune (commune urbain, ) in northern

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 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 ...

Mandritsara Mandritsara is a city and commune (commune urbain, ) in northern Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Mandritsara, which is a part of Sofia Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 17,000 in 2001 commune cens ...

, which is a part of

Sofia Region Sofia is a Regions of Madagascar, region in northern Madagascar. It is named for the Sofia River. It is the second largest Malagasy region (behind Atsimo-Andrefana) with an area of 50,100 km² (19,300 sq mi), and had a population of 1,500,227 ...

. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 17,000 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 ...

Farming and raising livestock provides employment for 40% and 35% of the working population. 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 ...

, while other important products are

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. Services provide employment for 25% of the population.

Education

In addition to primary schooling the town offers secondary education at both junior and senior levels. The Social Sciences Training and Research Unit (UFRSS) is the Mandritsara branch of the University of Mahajanga.

Healthcare

Mandritsara is home to Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly, a hospital which aims to show God’s love to those in need and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every patient. It has 57 inpatient beds, maternity facilities, and the only operating theatre for a 200km radius.

Transport

* RN 32 * Mandritsara is served by a local

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

River

Mandritsara lies on the Mangarahara river, an affluent of the

Sofia River The Sofia is a river of northwestern Madagascar. It flows through the Sofia Region. The source is at the Tsaratanana Massif at an altitude of 1784 metres. It has a length of . Its mouth is in the Indian Ocean in the Boriziny-Vaovao District (Por ...

References and notes

Cities in Madagascar Populated places in Sofia Region {{SofiaMG-geo-stub