Plantation Economy in Philippines

Concept of Plantation

A plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops are grown
for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption.

Crops grown on plantations include cotton, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane and various oil seeds and rubber
trees. Farms that produce alfalfa, Lespedeza, clover, and other forage crops are usually not called
plantations. The term "plantation" has usually not included large orchards, but has included the planting
of trees for timber. A plantation is always a monoculture over a large area and does not include
extensive naturally occurring stands of plants that have economic value.

Because of its large size,

 A plantation takes advantage of economies of scale.

 Protective policies and natural qualified advantage have contributed to determining where
plantations have been located.

Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a
worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic
activity, it has changed over time.

Earlier forms of plantation agriculture were associated with:

 large disparities of wealth and income,

 foreign ownership,
 political influence,
 Exploitative social systems such as indentured labor and slavery.

The histories of the environmental, social and economic issues relating to plantation agriculture are
covered in articles that focus on those subjects.

Concept of Plantation Economy:

A plantation economy is an economy which is based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few
staple products grown on large farms called plantations. Plantation economies rely on the export of cash
crops as a source of income. Prominent plantation crops have included cotton, rubber, sugar cane,
tobacco, figs, rice, kapok, sisal and indigo.

Regions with plantation economies have usually been in the southern United States, South America, the
Caribbean, and Africa. Plantation economies are also historically associated with slavery, particularly in
the United States. Plantation economies usually benefit the large countries to which they are exporting,
which usually manufacture the raw materials grown on the plantations into goods which are then traded
back to the plantation economy. Throughout most of history, the countries receiving the crops have
usually been in Western Europe.

Benefits of Plantation:

 Ecological Impact:

However, even non-native tree species may serve as corridors for wildlife and act as a buffer for
native forest, reducing edge effect.

 Plantation and natural loss to forest:

Many forestry experts claim that the establishment of plantations will reduce or eliminate the
need to exploit natural forest for wood production. In principle this is true because due to the
high productivity of plantations less land is needed. Many point to the example of New Zealand,
where 19% of the forest area provides 99% of the supply of industrial round wood. It has been
estimated that the worlds needs for fiber could be met by just 5% of the world forest

Criticism of Plantation:

 Ecological Impact:

Probably the single most important factor a plantation has on the local environment is the site
where the plantation is established. If natural forest is cleared for a planted forest then a reduction
in biodiversity and loss of habitat will likely result. If a plantation is established on abandoned
agricultural land, or highly degraded land, it can result in an increase in both habitat and
biodiversity. A planted forest can be profitably established on lands that will not support agriculture
or suffer from lack of natural regeneration.

 Plantations and natural forest loss:

Many forestry experts claim that the establishment of plantations will reduce or eliminate the need
to exploit natural forest for wood production. However in practice, plantations are replacing natural
forest, for example in Indonesia. According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations), about 7% of the natural closed forest being lost in the tropics is land being
converted to plantations. The remaining 93% of the loss is land being converted to agriculture and
other uses. Worldwide, an estimated 15% of plantations in tropical countries are established on
closed canopy natural forest.

 Attracts Slavery:
Being the most labour intensive industry and the nature of work, Plantation attracts human
trafficking and also influences the system of slavery. Since the work of plantation and the hot
and humid climate makes the work environment most unfavorable for the labour force. Hence it
carries the biggest critics. The low wage rate and even the payment of wages below the minimal
level promote exploitation of the workers.
According to U.S. Census figures, in 1860 one out of every four families in Virginia owned slaves.
There were over 100 plantation owners that owned over 100 slaves.

o Number of slaves in the Lower South: 2,312,352 (47% of total population).

o Number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208,758 (29% of total population).
o Number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population).

Less than one-third of all Southern families owned slaves at the peak of slavery prior to the Civil
War. In Mississippi and South Carolina it approached one half. The total number of slave owners
was 385,000 (including, in Louisiana, some free Negroes), amounting to approximately 3.8% of
the Southern and Border states population.