Garhanga

Region

Garhanga is a rural municipality in the department of Keita in Niger.

Geography

Garhanga lies in the Sahel. The neighboring municipalities are Keita in the north, Ibohamane in the northeast, Tabotaki in the east, in the southeast Déoulé, Allakaye in the south, southwest and Tamaské Badaguichiri in the west. The municipality is divided into 40 administrative villages, two traditional villages and 22 hamlets. The main town of the rural community is the administrative village Garhanga.

The varied surface relief consists of plateaus, valleys and their catchment areas. The average annual rainfall in the municipality during the period 1997-2006 amounted to 458.84 millimeters with an average of 41 rainy days a year. The rainy season usually lasts from June to September. The once rich fauna and flora Garhangas thinned since the 1950s increasingly. In the high plains scattered acacia trees grow, Filzblättrige jujubes, Piliostigma reticulatum and Wüstendatteln. In the valleys there is a denser vegetation. The wild animal population - monkeys, squirrels, rabbits and guinea fowl - is realized due to lack of habitat, water shortages and increasing human settlement on the wane.

History

Birni vein (also: Birni n'Ader ), now an administrative village in the municipality of Garhanga, was the capital of the province in 1674 created vein of the Sultanate of Aïr. Beginning of the 19th century was Illela instead of Birni vein to the main town of the province.

The French administration sparked 1913 Garhanga out as their own canton from 1904 created Canton Keita. 2002 emerged the rural community Garhanga as part of a nationwide administrative reform from the Canton Garhanga.

Population

At the 2001 census Garhanga had 48 270 inhabitants. For the year 2010 65.034 inhabitants were calculated. In the community members of the Hausa, Tuareg and Fulani live. There are still animistic traditions addition to Islam.

Economy and infrastructure

More than 90 % of the population work in agriculture. The municipality is located in a zone in which mainly rain-fed agriculture is operated. Are grown in this form the staple food of millet and sorghum, cowpeas, peanuts, corn, okra, sweet potatoes, and cassava Catjangbohnen. In the valleys irrigation crop production for vegetables and Allspice is also practiced. To the west of the municipality there are three natural water points where fruit, especially bananas, is grown, which represents an important source of income. In addition, the fruits of Wüstendatteln and jujubes are eaten and won gum arabic. The harvested legumes of acacia and Ana trees are used as cattle feed. Several factors create unfavorable conditions for agricultural activities. These include in particular soil erosion and the uncertainty in rainfall. In animal husbandry predominates extensive livestock farming of goat, sheep, cattle, donkeys, horses and camels. The ranchers who are struggling with diseases of livestock, inadequate and shrinking grazing areas and land use conflicts with the farmers.

In Garhanga there are several craft shops, including tanneries, basket -making workshops, smithy and pottery. Their products are put on due to the remoteness of the rural community and a lack of organization hardly in the national trade. The retail sector is mainly in the hands of women and suffers from mangelhaftem working capital. Are traded on peanut oil, dishes, spices and sweets. Labor migration is widespread and is operated in rotation in larger families. There are significant deposits of gypsum and lime in the rural community, which are degraded in a traditional way. The main source of energy for the population is firewood is used for cooking. Timber has to be imported to a large extent from the neighboring countries. For daily tea and in the forging charcoal used. The predominant form of artificial lighting is the kerosene lamp, only the village Laba a high-voltage line from the near Nigeria was conducted.

In education are 41 distributed over the municipality primary schools and two middle schools. The gross enrollment rate in Garhanga 2006 was 45% ( 35.42 % in girls ) and is intended by the construction of additional classrooms in 2015 reach 100 %. Located in the capital and in the villages Fararat and Laba there each health center (French: Centre de santé Integré ), but not a single pharmacy.

By Garhanga the National Road 16, which connects the village to the regional capital Tahoua runs. For carts, motorcycles and cars, the roads, their condition is generally a bad idea to use in the rainy season, barely. Transports are done mainly with donkeys and camels.