Plantation crops

Plantation horticulture is an important part of the economic landscape of many tropical countries. Plantations were developed in association with colonial expansion and the original models were based on the production of monocrops which had a ready export market, using cheap or slave labour. Plantations in the twenty first Century are less likely environments for exploitation of human and environmental capital. They are however, linked to crop production on a large scale for produce to be sold, at profit, for export to distant markets rather than local sale. A range of crops can be broadly categorized into plantation crops. Plantations continue to be effective models for efficient agricultural production and will evolve in response to the continued demand for food, fruit, fibre, oil crops and timber from a growing population

Carbon losses in terrestrial hydrological pathways in sugarcane cropping systems of Australia

Climate change and carbon (C) sequestration are a major focus of research in the twenty-first century. Globally, soils store about 300 times the amount of C that is released per annum through the burning of fossil fuels (Schulze and Freibauer 2005). Land clearing and introduction of agricultural systems have led to rapid declines in soil C reserves. The recent introduction of conservation agricultural practices has not led to a reversing of the decline in soil C content, although it has minimized the rate of decline (Baker et al. 2007; Hulugalle and Scott 2008). Lal (2003) estimated the quantum of C pools in the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, and oceans and reported a “missing C” component in the world C budget. Though not proven yet, this could be linked to C losses through runoff and soil erosion (Lal 2005) and a lack of C accounting in inland water bodies (Cole et al. 2007). Land management practices to minimize the microbial respiration and soil organic C (SOC) decline such as minimum tillage or no tillage were extensively studied in the past, and the soil erosion and runoff studies monitoring those management systems focused on other nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).