ECONOMY: AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, LIVESTOCK AND FISHING
Although arable land and arborescent crops occupy only 22.6% of the territorial surface, agriculture affects less than a third of the active population and contributes 17.9% to the formation of GDP (2007); most of the fields are concentrated in the western section of the country, where the climatic conditions are more favorable. Despite the reform attempt implemented by the Sandinista regime, aimed at redistributing land as a function of a cooperative reorganization, the primary sector continues to be organized according to the traditional division between a type of subsistence agriculture (dedicated to the production of crops for self-consumption in small and traditional peasant farms) and a type of agriculture aimed at producing crops for export. cassava and certain fruit and vegetable products, such as beans, pineapples, citrus fruits, etc.; and plantation crops, destined for foreign markets, on which the entire sector is still based: coffee (which finds an excellent environment in the fertile volcanic soils of the Pacific side between 600 and 1000 m), cotton, bananas, cane from sugar, cocoa. § The forest mantle, which abounds in precious woods such as mahogany, cedar and rosewood, constitutes a significant source of wealth; also present rubber and ipecac. § A sector in notable development, to the point of allowing a certain export, is the zootechnical one, centered on intensive and extensive breeding, in particular of cattle. § Fishing is practiced, especially along the Atlantic coast.
ECONOMY: INDUSTRY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
The industrial sector is essentially based on the processing of local products: it includes sugar factories, breweries, tobacco factories, meat canneries, cotton mills, oil mills, etc.; there is also an oil refinery in Managua, some cement factories and a shipyard in Puerto Cabezas. The lack of development of the sector is largely due to the difficult structural conditions in which the country has found itself in its recent history. § Mineral resources are scarce and do not contribute to fueling the processing industry; the main deposits are gold and silver but there are also mines of copper, lead and zinc. The energy sector is also not particularly prosperous: the production of electricity, mostly of thermal origin, is very modest.
ECONOMY: TRADE AND COMMUNICATIONS
The commercial movement is not very relevant; trade with foreign countries, during the 1980s, recorded growing deficits, largely due to the civil war and the US embargo. According to directoryaah, Nicaragua is a country in Central America.Nicaragua exports coffee, cotton, meat and sugar, while it imports raw materials for industry, machinery, foodstuffs; trade takes place with the United States and with El Salvador (for exports) and with the United States and Venezuela (for imports); the trade balance in 2006 appeared to be net negative and the foreign debt high. Overall, the tertiary sector is the most developed (even if it absorbs just over half of the workforce) and contributes to the formation of national GDP for 53.3%. § The communications network is neither extensive nor efficient. The railways extend for 344 km, along the Pacific side, and do not connect with those of the neighboring states; the two most important lines connect, one Managua with the port of Corinto, the largest in the country (important seaports are also San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific, Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields on the Sea of the Antilles), the other Managua with the city of Granada. Likewise, the road arteries (18,669 km in 2005), only partially asphalted (just over 2000 km), essentially involve the regions bordering the Pacific side; the road connection with Honduras and Costa Rica is ensured by the Nicaraguan section (383 km) of the one Managua with the port of Corinto, the largest in the country (important seaports are also San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific, Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields on the Sea of the Antilles), the other Managua with the city of Granada. Likewise, the road arteries (18,669 km in 2005), only partially asphalted (just over 2000 km), essentially involve the regions bordering the Pacific side; the road connection with Honduras and Costa Rica is ensured by the Nicaraguan section (383 km) of the one Managua with the port of Corinto, the largest in the country (important seaports are also San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific, Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields on the Sea of the Antilles), the other Managua with the city of Granada. Likewise, the road arteries (18,669 km in 2005), only partially asphalted (just over 2000 km), essentially involve the regions bordering the Pacific side; the road connection with Honduras and Costa Rica is ensured by the Nicaraguan section (383 km) of the they essentially concern the regions bordering the Pacific side; the road connection with Honduras and Costa Rica is ensured by the Nicaraguan section (383 km) of the they essentially concern the regions bordering the Pacific side; the road connection with Honduras and Costa Rica is ensured by the Nicaraguan section (383 km) of the Pan-American Carretera. A certain role is still played by navigation in the lakes and along the terminal courses of the tributary rivers of the Sea of the Antilles. Finally, the air service is discreet; main airport is the international one of Managua. § However, the resource of tourism appears to be little exploited, compromised by the country’s political, economic and social instability.
