Ranohira is a town and commune 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 ...

Ihosy Ihosy is a city (commune urbaine) with 39,556 inhabitants (2018) in Ihorombe Region in central south Madagascar. Ihosy is the capital of Ihorombe Region, as well as of the district of Ihosy District, Ihosy. Geography Ihosy is an important cross ...

, which is a part of

Ihorombe Region Ihorombe is a region in Madagascar. It borders Haute Matsiatra region in north, Atsimo-Atsinanana in east, Anosy in south and Atsimo-Andrefana in west. The capital is Ihosy and the population was 418,520 in 2018. The area of Ihorombe is and it h ...

. The population of the commune was 16,041 in 2018. The nearest towns are

Ilakaka Ilakaka is a small town in Ihorombe Region in the south western part of Madagascar. In the early 1990s there were only about 40 residents in the area. After the discovery of one of Earth's largest known alluvial sapphire deposits in the valley ...

at 26 km and

93 km distance.Atlas Mondial, France Loisir, page 159

Infrastructure

Ranohira is situated on the route nationale No. 7 from Tuléar to

Fianarantsoa Fianarantsoa is a city (commune urbaine) in south central Madagascar, and is the capital of Haute Matsiatra Region. History It was built in the early 19th century by the Merina as the administrative capital for the newly conquered Betsileo kin ...

in the South-West of

. This highway passes the centre of the town. Ranohira has a hospital and several hotels. There is a small supermarket in the town as well as many shops. Primary and junior level secondary education are available in town. One of the mosts famous schools is Collège Notre Dame de l'Isalo.

Economy

Ranohira is also a site of industrial-scale mining. The majority 85% of the population of the commune are farmers, while an additional 10% receives 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 ...

, 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 5% of the population.

Sights

Opposite the Town Hall (''Mairie'') a sports ground with a stand and various monuments can be visited. L'Eglise de Notre Dame de l'Isalo is a modern octagonal catholic church. Ranohira is the closest town to the

Isalo National Park Isalo National Park is a National Park in the Ihorombe Region of Madagascar, in the southwestern corner of the Province of Fianarantsoa. The closest town is Ranohira, and the closest cities are Toliara and Ihosy. It is a sandstone landscape that ...

Climate

Ranohira Route Nationale RN7.jpg, National road no. 7 RanohiraEglise.jpg, Catholic church RanohiraEgliseIntérieur.jpg, Catholic church RanohiraGrandRueBougainvillea.jpg, Main Street RanohiraGrandRueGeschäfte.jpg, Main Street RanohiraKrankenhaus.jpg, Hospital RanohiraLycée.jpg, Collège Notre Dame de l'Isalo RanohiraSportplDenkmälerTribüne.jpg, Sports ground and monuments

References and notes

{{coord, 22, 26, S, 45, 21, E, display=title Populated places in Ihorombe