Masianaka 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 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 ...

Vangaindrano Vangaindrano is a town and a district in Atsimo-Atsinanana Region, Madagascar with a population of 38,537 (2018). Geography The town is near the mouth of the Mananara River at the southern part of the east coast. It's connected to the north by Ro ...

, which is a part of

Atsimo-Atsinanana Region Atsimo-Atsinanana (South East) is a region in Madagascar. Its capital is Farafangana. The region used to be part of the Fianarantsoa Province. The region extends along the southern part of the east coast of Madagascar. It is bordered by Fitovinan ...

. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 18,000 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 ...

. Only primary schooling is available. The majority 66% of the population of the commune are farmers. 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

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

s, while other important agricultural products are

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

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 ...

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 and

pepper Pepper(s) may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plants ** Black pepper ** Long pepper ** Kampot pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanacea ...

. Services provide employment for 1% of the population. Additionally, fishing employs 33% of the population.

Roads

Masianaka is situated on the East coast of Madagascar on the National road 12A, 30 km south from

. The first ferry on the National road 12A in direction of

Fort Dauphin Fort Dauphin may refer to: ;Canada * Fort Dauphin (Manitoba), in Manitoba * Fort Dauphin (Nova Scotia), in Nova Scotia ;Haiti * Fort-Liberté Fort-Liberté (; ) is a List of communes of Haiti, commune and administrative capital of the Nord-Est ...

is in this municipality.

Lake Masihanaka

Next to the town the Masianaka river forms the Lake Masihanaka (Farihy Masihanaka).

References

Populated places in Atsimo-Atsinanana {{AtsimoAtsinanana-geo-stub