Plantation agriculture Essay

Plantation agriculture is a wide-hearted of commercial ar satisfactory dry land in the world. It is especially important in humid tropics with enough growth of vegetation. Its economic in effect(p)ness is always emphasized, bringing both positivist and minus impacts. In recent decades, crop diversification is introduced and the bionomic rest of the natural environment is greatly conserved. Plantation agriculture refers to the growing of funds crops on large foreign owned estates in countries of tropical environment. It is usually practiced in a large scale with monoculture, in which but a certain type of plant is dominant.Take Papua New ginzo as an example, in the area, cacao, coffee and rubber are mainly self-aggrandizing in the region for export to separate countries. Under this kind of farming, there are positive impacts to the economy. Firstly, due to its large scale of operation and macrocosm export-oriented in Papua New Guinea, the supply of products is regular and of uniformly steep quality. With juicy demand for the products, this attracts large amount of investment of capital from the foreign countries, such(prenominal) as Europe and North America, thus allowing the farmers being financially able to provide the expensive machinery capable of turning out a high grade product.Benefiting from economies of scale, this enables both the transportation cost and production cost to be lowered. warrantly, plantations are besides able to undertake greater scientific look into and the eradication of pests and diseases. For example, one large sugar comp all in the agent British colony of Guyana was able to employ a large look into staff to produce a strain of sugar flocke loathly to leaf-scald disease.Besides, government assistance has brought improved crop varieties, scientific research, new pesticides and fertilizers and effective marketing, The government of Papua New Guinea launched The Cape Hoskins Oil Palm abstract to solve land disp utes of many small holdings, strengthening national self-reliance. With change magnitude demand for the plantation, the employment respect of Papua New Guinea is greatly change magnitude as there are more needs for personnel to have a go at it crop growing and researching. Some crop processing and manufacturing industries are see up to satisfy the demand for crops.The farm productivity is increased as well. As people undersurface earn more income from this kind of farming, this stimulates the rate of urbanization, hence the development of infrastructure and improvement of public facilities, such as roads, railways, ports, towns, schools, hospitals and the supply of electricity and water. As a result, the living standard of the tire is greatly improved. Despite the economic benefits, plantation farming somehow brings negative impacts to Papua New Guinea. First is the reliance upon the protected markets in Australia.At present, about one-third of the copra, 40 percent of the c offee, most of the cocoa and rubber is exported to Australia, which is delegate to admit duty free. In return, Papua New Guinea has to pay taxes for any imports. This leads to outflow of capital to foreign countries because this kind of farming is highly export-oriented. Second is the problem of labour. Plantations require large amount of cheap labour, but the earnings rate is progressively higher because of the rising living standard and commercialisation of the country.This increases the cost of production and thus veers the competitiveness among other countries for the same kind of farming. Apart from this, the risk of crop failure is an important factor for consideration. As plantation agriculture is highly specialized. People highly rely on monoculture to earn a living. When the price of cash crops falls drastically or there is a sudden of crop failure, the income of farmers willing fall as well. As a result, the earning of farmers tend to be unstable and badly bear upon t he national income of Papua New Guinea.Besides, people have to import other necessities from other countries instead of planting within their own country, self-sufficiency cannot be achieved. In this way, there is no other source to safeguard the return of farmers. To get across the negative impacts, crop diversification is a good method to reduce the over-reliance on certain types of cash crops. Ecologically, this method can also be beneficial to the environment. Since different types of crops are grown, the risk of crop failure decreases. This can stop the spread of diseases and pests for a particular type of crops. The population of pests decreases.This in turn reduces the use of pesticides. Hence, the chance of stream pollution is smaller, the sea organisms will not be poisoned or suffocated so easily, the nutrient flow can be more stable. on that point will be greater revolution of species of biomass, so the ecosystem will be more stable. Furthermore, diversification of crop s increases the vegetation cover. There will be less surface runoff and soil erosion, all the same infiltration increases. The nutrients of the soil can be preserved. Crop diversification also reduces the exhaustion of certain type of nutrients, fertility can be maintain and thus the use of fertilizer will be less universal as well.Climatically, because of less crop failures, the amount of biomass increases. The evapotranspiration rate and wind go can be more stable, so the microclimate can be keep constant, the risk of global warming will not be get serious so fast. In conclusion, plantation of cash crops is significant in Papua New Guinea for economic development. Though crop diversification whitethorn not be as profitable as plantation agriculture, ecological environment should not be ignored. In long-term, diversification of crops is a good way to safeguard the natural environment and brings more stable income to the farmers as well.