Belazao is a town and commune in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of Antsirabe II, which is a part of

Vakinankaratra Region Vakinankaratra is a region in central Madagascar. The capital of the region is Antsirabe. Vakinankaratra covers an area of , and had a population of 2,074,358 in 2018. History The kingdom of Vakinankaratra, known as the kingdom of the river Andra ...

. The population of the commune was estimated to be 14,332 in 2018. Belazao is located near the lake Tritriva. Primary and junior level secondary education are available in town. The majority 85% of the population of the commune are farmers, while an additional 15% receives their livelihood from raising livestock. The most important crop is

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es, while other important products are

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

and soya.

History

The first settlers of present-day Belazao were the

Merina people The Merina people (also known as the Imerina, Antimerina, or Hova) are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar.Merina ...

s. Despite being a small old town set within a backdrop of cultivated rice fields, it currently functions as an

agro-town An agro-town is an agglomeration in a rural environment with a population of several thousands but whose workforce's main occupation is agriculture. An agro-town also lacks the administrative, commercial and industrial functions that are usually ...

for its source of farming.

References and notes

Populated places in Vakinankaratra {{Vakinankaratra-geo-stub