Plantation agriculture

Plantation agriculture is a form of commercial farming where crops are grown for profit. Large land areas are needed for this type of agriculture. Countries that have plantation agriculture usually experience high annual temperatures and receive high annual rainfall. Plantations are mainly found in countries that have a tropical climate.

Plantation agriculture has its roots in the past. In the early 18th and 19th centuries, a number of plantations were set up by westerners and western companies. They employed either local and foreign workers who were willing to work for a small wage. For example, the rubber plantations set up by the British in Malaya employed many workers from India. Today, most plantatons are owned by the local governments or big compnies.

PURPOSE
-Plantation agriculture is a form of commercial farming where crops are grown for sale. Some crops are sold as raw materials to manufactoring industries.

INPUTS:
-Land: Plantations are huge and can extend from a few hectares to a few thousand hectares. For example, in Malaysia, an oil palm plantation is usually at leasy 40 hectares in size.

-Capital: A large amount of capital is put into building roads, buying machinery and building factories to process the crops harvested from the plantations.
Plantation owners also invest large amounts of their capital on fertilisers and pesticides. Fertilisers are applied to plantation crops as frequently as these crops use up nutrients from the land quickly. Since plantations usually grow one type of crop, pest attacks can cause total destruction of the plantations. Pesticides are therefore used in huge quantities to prevent crops from being entirely destryed by pests.

--Labour: Due to the large size of a plantation, a lot of labour is needed to tend to the crops and work in the nearby processing factories. For example in Malaysia;s large rubber plantations, many workers are hired to tap latex from rubber trees.

PRODUCE:
-the total output of a plantation is usually high. However, as a plantation covers a wide area of land, its output per unit are is usully low.

-Usually, only one type p crop is grown in a plantation. Common examples include rubber, coffee, tea, bananas, sugar cane, oil palm, cocoa and tobacco