57 Plantation Facts: A Must Read For Kids & Their Parents!

Plantation farming is a particular type of farming where farmers grow a single crop throughout the year.

Plantation agriculture is practiced in areas that lie in the tropical zone. These include countries like India, Brazil, Cuba, Sri Lanka, and others.

Plantation farming is now replaced with tenant farming and sharecropping in the southern part of America. Even though plantation farming is still practiced in many parts of the world, it has a bitter history.

To produce more crops in the plantations, owners often brought in slaves from Africa. Slaves carried out hard work throughout the day with mere or negligible pay.

The men were tasked to work in the field while the female slaves served as indentured servants. The slaves lived poorly in small shacks that contained no furniture.

On average, around 20-30 slaves planted and cultivated on a plantation farm for almost 18 hours a day. With the American Civil War, slavery was finally abolished, and thus millions of African slaves became free.

Read on to know more about plantations and if you like this article, then also check out how do plants grow and plants that repel bees.

Environmental Factors

A vast number of environmental factors dictate the plantation system. Let us check some of these factors that play a direct role in the effective functioning of the plantation system.

For the growth of most crops, including cash crops on a farm, proper climatic conditions and environmental factors are responsible. These factors play a vital role in the essential growth and the development of plantation crops.

As plantation farming is carried out in the tropic zone of our planet, humid summers are ideally suited to grow crops using mass production.

Apart from the summers, mild winters are also required for these crops to grow in large quantities throughout the year. Due to these climatic conditions being highly suited for plantation life, southern states and the colonial south were the chief areas where small farms and larger plantations were cultivated.

After the climatic conditions come the fertility of the soil. Crops required to be grown and produced on a large scale need fertile soil. Thus the different colonies of past America like the Virginia colony, Maryland colony, South Carolina, North Carolina colony, Georgia colony, and other areas of South America produced these crops of a massive scale.

Lastly comes the destructive factors that play an adverse role in the depletion of these crops. Soil erosion, pollution, and other associated processes like subsistence farming, the destruction of the land habitat play a determining factor in the proper growth and development of these crops.

Government Norms

Every job in the country works by adhering to the laws and the guidelines that the government of the land has settled down. Let us check the government norms for plantation farming.

Different countries of the globe have their unique set of laws for farming and agriculture that differ from one another. However, quite a few norms appear more or less common everywhere.

These are, the food security laws should be obeyed, food subsidies should be granted, land reforms should be made, the lifestyle of farmers should be improved, and other similar things.

However, in this new world, things were not the same in plantation farming not so long ago. Sugar cane farming was carried out in sugar plantations; African slaves were brought to America to work in these farms as slave labor alongside cotton farming.

During the colonial times, a massive labor force was required, and thus large labor force, along with a small labor force depending on the size of the plantations, was brought and made to work by the slave owners.

Male slaves worked on the land while female slaves acted as indentured servants of their masters. These slaves were often made to work 18 hours a day. But with the civil war, slavery was abolished, and millions of slaves became free.

Sustainable Growth

One of the primary means of growing crops like sugar cane in sugar plantations, purple dye, cotton, and other crops is for the sustainable growth of the plantation.

If the plantation is not sufficient to produce the required amount of crops and cannot also incur the amount of money necessary to achieve profits, then there remains no means to produce these crops.

So let us check out some of the steps undertaken to ensure proper sustainable growth of these crops.

Plantation agriculture is ideally suited for countries that have humid summers. Therefore, these crops should be grown in countries located in the tropical zone. These countries experience hot summers accompanied by heavy rainfall.

Since plantation farming is a means of commercialized farming, a large amount of land is required for the proper growth and development of these crops. These crops are mainly grown to be sold off in the markets and thus should not necessarily be for the personal use of the farmers.

For sustainable development in this farming method, a large amount of labor and the investment of capital is required. The process of plantation farming is an intrinsic form of agriculture and thus acts as an interface for the agricultural industry.

Corporate Responsibility

The work done by the workers and the laborers on a plantation farm is exceptionally tiring and thus takes a toll on their livelihood. So let us check out how corporate organizations can take measures to take care of their workers and employees.

Though big companies earn millions by growing and exporting cash crops all across the globe, one of the major concerns in today's world lies in the hands of Corporate Social Responsibility. This is where the corporate must pay attention to making profits and be responsible for specific areas. Let us find out those key areas.

Good crops must be grown so that humankind's needs and demands are effectively fulfilled and not just as an aim to create record-breaking profits in the corporate sector.

The earth provides all the necessary needs for humanity, and thus humans in no way should overexploit the planet. Farming has been in existence of humanity since time immemorial; however, with the population boom of the modern new world, the natural resource of our planet has been constantly overused.

Therefore, the corporate should take all the necessary and adequate steps required to preserve, protect, and enhance the earth's natural resources.

For sustainable growth in farming, especially for significant plant species growing in the plantation system, the crops produced should be profitable. This will act as a way of increasing the need for food and recouping the expenses that have been made while growing the crop.

Lastly comes the lives of workers and the laborers associated with the plantation system. The quality of life of each of these workers should be improved and society.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created many interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for plantation facts, then why not take a look at are rhubarb leaves poisonous or sunflower facts?