What is a Plantation Crop?

A plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops that are not consumed for food are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption . Such crops include cotton, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, sisal, 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 lumber. A plantation is always a monoculture over a large area and  does not include extensive naturally occurring stands of plants that have economic value.