(Lucania), a region of Italy in the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula. The territory of Basilicata is divided between the provinces of Matera and Potenza. Area, 9,990 sq km; population, 633,400 (1968). The main cities are Matera and Potenza. Basilicata is bounded on the southeast by the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea and on the southwest by the Gulf of Policastro- in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The western, southern, and northern parts are occupied by the Lucanian Apennines (maximum elevation, 2,007 m); the east, by the periphery of the Le Murge plateau; and the southeast, by a coastal depression. The climate is a dry Mediterranean one. There are sparse xerophyte forests and shrubs.
Economically, Basilicata is one of the most backward areas of the country. Its economy is based on agriculture, which employed 56.5 percent of the economically active population in 1961. Land resources are divided as follows: arable land, 46.7 percent; meadows and pastures, 27.7 percent; orchards, vineyards, and olive groves, 5 percent; and forests, 17 percent (1966). The basic agricultural crops are wheat and oats. Leguminous crops, cabbage, peppers, and early vegetables are also grown. There is livestock raising on mountain pastures (548,000 sheep and 130,000 goats in 1968).
Industry, which employs 26 percent of the economically active population, is represented chiefly by small-scale food-processing, woodworking, and garment-enterprises and by handicraft workshops. Lignite used for thermal electric power plants is mined in Mercura. Electricity (210 gigawatt-hours in 1967) is generated mainly by hydroelectric power stations. A petrochemical industry has grown up in the cities of Bari, Monopoli, and Ferrandina on the basis of the natural gas deposits in the Pisticci-Ferrandina region (discovered in 1959), from which the gas is brought by pipelines. There is a rolling mill in Potenza, a transport-machinery enterprise in Matera, and a paper mill in Venosa.
T. A. GALKINA