Cash crops were originally small acreage crops sold on commodity markets, such as wheat and cotton. Now, cash crops also refer to crops grown in developing nations for foreign trade, and illegal crops like marijuana and opium. Most industrial-sized farms now grow crops solely for sale on the global commodity market, chosen based on climate and profitability. The World Bank and IMF promote high-yield crops in developing countries, but this disrupts traditional subsistence farming practices. Some cash crops, like marijuana and opium, are highly profitable but come with negative consequences. Costa Rica broke free from the cycle of growing cash crops by developing other sectors of the economy.
The reference to cash crops originated in the American vernacular between 1865 and 1870 as a term that defined small acreage farmers who grew crops for immediate sale on the commodity market. These crops were often wheat and cotton, which were quickly sold as opposed to crops such as corn which were largely grown to feed livestock. However, the concept of cash crop has diversified over the years, coming to take on two other predominant meanings. It may refer to a practice in impoverished developing nations such as those in Central America which have been derogatorily referred to as “banana republics”, where agriculture is the main source of foreign trade and cash crops such as bananas are grown to bring foreign capital into local economies. The cultivation of crops such as marijuana and opium has also become a significant part of international agriculture and to finance activities such as that of Mexican criminal organizations.
Before the advent of large-scale commercial agriculture, most agricultural activities involved growing native crops for subsistence purposes. This meant that the direct benefactors of the harvest were the peasant family and the local community itself, as well as the livestock they raised. As of 2011, however, most industrial-sized farms grow crops intended solely for sale on the global commodity market.
The choice of crops grown solely for profit is often made based on both climate and how quickly they can mature and produce the highest possible yields and income for the available space on earth. This means that, in tropical climates, cash crops are often fruits such as oranges or high-value processed products such as coffee, cocoa or cotton. In temperate regions such as the western United States, they more typically involve soybeans and grains such as wheat, while in the southern states of the United States, tobacco predominates.
Efforts by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since the 1980s have been to promote the development of high-yield crops in developing countries. This is seen as key to the economic growth of such nations, even as it disrupts traditional subsistence farming practices. Local farmers are subsidized to grow export crops such as flowers and coffee, and foods grown for domestic consumption are not supported. The downside of such an approach is that cash crops are better suited to large-scale farming for actual profit levels, which involves expensive farm equipment and chemical fertilizers and pesticides to keep them in growing conditions that are not entirely natural. Farmers with small parcels of land often cannot produce these crops competitively with their production in first world economies.
Cash crops such as marijuana in Mexico and opium in Afghanistan are considered some of the most profitable crops in the world. This is despite Mexico’s covert marijuana trade funding a gang war responsible for the deaths of 40,000 Mexicans between 2006 and 2011. Afghanistan’s opium trade is also seen as supplying 90% of the world’s market for heroin produced from the harvest. , despite a multinational military effort to eradicate the tradition of growing poppy fields there, where 50 tons of opium alone were seized and destroyed in 2009. The opium trade is known to generate an income for rebel forces in Afghanistan of $100,000,000 to $400,000,000 US Dollars (USD) annually.
An example of a success story involving a developing nation that broke free from the vicious cycle of growing cash crops to generate capital is Costa Rica. The three main cash crops Costa Rica produces – pineapples, bananas and coffee – were overtaken by revenues from other sectors of the economy which began rapid development in the mid-1980s. These included tourism and the manufacturing of electronic and pharmaceutical products in partnership with US companies. Costa Rica was known as the “Coffee Republic” in the 1800s and, as of 2011, faces a new conflict to protect the rainforest environment for tourism while at the same time trying to discourage logging of the old-growth forests that are illegally cut down for a series of immediate crops.
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