ECONOMY
Cultivation consists mainly of showable (especially wheat), which represent 46% of the total land. Potatoes and maize are produced in the mountain areas. Olives and vines are also commonly found. A quality wine called 'Aglianico del Vulture' is produced around Rionero. According to the latest Census of Agriculture.
Among industrial activities, the manufacturing sector contributes to the gross value added of the secondary sector with 64% of the total , while the building sector contributes 24%. Within the services sector, the main activities in terms of gross value added are business activities, distributive trade, education and public administration. In the last years, new productive sectors have developed: manufacture, automotive, and especially oil extraction: in 2009 people employed by Enid in this area were 230 (of which over 50% from Basilicata) and about 1,800 were employed in activities directly generated by Eni’s operations, distributed in 80 companies of which over 50% from Basilicata; the region produced about 100,000 bbl/d (16,000 m3/d), meeting 11 percent of Italy's domestic oil demand. The impervious nature of the land, the malaria which infested the coastal areas until the beginning of this century and difficult communications has always been an o obstacle to human settlement in this region.
Therefore, there has been a sharp population decrease, caused by considerable migratory flows towards foreign countries and the richer regions of Italy, a tendency which slowed down only at the beginning of the 1970s.As to distribution of the population, there is a tendency towards progressive movement to the larger towns; the central-eastern part of the region, characterized by arid impoverished clay soil, is almost deserted with only poor agricultural activities.
The most densely populated areas lie between Melfi and Potenza and the fertile reclaimed area of Metaponto. The major towns are Melfi, Rionero in Vulture, Lauria (in the Province of Potenza), Pisticci and Policoro, in the Province of Matera. The Lucanian dialect belongs to the family of central-south Italic dialects and though not uniform throughout the region, it tends to be considered, together with the north Calabrian dialect, as one of its sub-groups.
The inhabitants of Barile, Brindisi Montagna, Maschito, S. Costantino Albanese and S. Paolo Albanese still speak a dialect of Albanian origin. Since Basilicata is still an underdeveloped region, its standard of living is well below the national average; however, the Province of Matera, as a result of an increase in industrial enterprise, has registered considerable improvement. Basilicata is the only Italian region where farm workers outnumber the people employed in industry.
In general, the principal crops of the region are cereals, particularly oats, wheat and barley; the most common vegetables are cabbages; there is a good production of leaf salad vegetables and tomatoes, also of apricots and peaches.Of some importance are the traditional vine and olive cultivations. There is a fair amount of livestock, especially goats and sheep, though fishing is insignificant, as is timber exploitation.