Artibonite is one of the ten
departments (
French:
départements) of
Haiti. With an area of 4,887 km
2 it is Haiti's largest department. Artibonite has a population of 1,727,524 in 2003. The region is the country's main rice-growing area. The main cities are
Gonaïves (the capital) and
Saint-Marc. In February 2004 an
insurgency tried unsuccessfully to declare Artibonite's independence.