Maherivaratra is a municipality in Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. It belongs to the district

Districts of Madagascar

Districts are second-level administrative divisions of Madagascar below the regions. Districts are in their turn divided into communes; while some of the districts on urban areas such as the district of Toliara consists of only one commune, most of the districts are divided typically into...

 of Ambanja

Ambanja District

Ambanja is a district in northern Madagascar. It's a part of Diana Region and borders the districts of Ambilobe in east, Bealanana in south and Analalava in south-west. The area is .The district is further divided into 18 communes.-References and notes:...

, which is a part of Diana Region. According to 2001 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 the population of Maherivaratra was 4,151.

Maherivaratra is served by a local airport. Only primary schooling is available in town. The majority 59 % of the population are farmers. The most important crop is seeds of catechu

Acacia catechu

Acacia catechu also commonly called Mimosa catechu, is a deciduous, thorny tree which grows up to in height. The plant is called khair in Hindi, and kachu in Malay, hence the name was Latinized to "catechu" in Linnaean taxonomy, as the type-species from which the extracts cutch and catechu are...

, while other important products are coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 and rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

. Services provide employment for 1 % and fishing employs 40 % of the population.