Betsihaka or Betsiaka is a town and commune ( mg, kaominina) 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 is part of 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, municipa ...

Ambilobe Ambilobe is an urban municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Ambilobe, which is a part of Diana Region. The town is the capital of Ambilobe district, and according to 2001 census the population was approximately 56,000. Ge ...

, which is in the

Diana Region Diana is a region in Madagascar at the northeast part of the island. It borders the regions of Sava to the southeast and Sofia to the southwest. It covers an area of 19,266 km2, and had a population of 889,736 in 2018. The regional capital i ...

. According to the 2001 commune

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, the population of Betsihaka was 10,661. The genus ''

Triadobatrachus ''Triadobatrachus'' is an extinct genus of salientian frog-like amphibians, including only one known species, ''Triadobatrachus massinoti''. It is the oldest member of the frog lineage known, and an excellent example of a transitional fossil. It ...

'', an extinct amphibian, was discovered there. Only primary schooling is available in the town. 60% of the population are farmers, while an additional 38% receive their livelihood from raising livestock. The most important crop is

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

; 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. The ...

and seeds of

catechu ( or ) is an extract of acacia trees used variously as a food additive, astringent, tannin, and dye. It is extracted from several species of '' Acacia'', but especially '' Senegalia catechu'' (''Acacia catechu''), by boiling the wood in w ...

. Industry and services each provide employment for 1% of the population.

References and notes

Populated places in Diana Region {{DianaMG-geo-stub