Cash crop

A crop that is produced for the purpose of exporting or selling rather than for consumption by the person who grows it. In many Third World countries, cash crops often replace the production of basic food staples such as rice, wheat, or corn in order to generate foreign exchange. For example, in Guatemala, much of the land is devoted to the production of bananas and citrus fruits (97% of the citrus crop is exported), which means that majority of the basic food products needed by the native people are imported from other countries. Often these foods are expensive and difficult for many poor people to obtain. Cash crop agriculture also forces many subsistence and tenant farmers to give up their land in order to make room for industrialized farming.

Cash Crop ★★½ Harvest 2001 (R)

Kids try to protect their farmer parents who decided to grow marijuana in order to pay off big debts. The DEA shows up, coming into conflict with the local sheriff, who's sympathetic to the farmers' plight. Fairly even-handed treatment, confounding expectations of an easy stoner comedy. 96m/ C VHS, DVD . Mary McCormack, John Slattery, James Van Der Beek, Jeffrey DeMunn, Wil Horneff, Frederick Weller, Paula Garces, Julianne Nicholson, Lisa Emery, Josh(ua) Lucas, Evan Handler; D: Stuart Burkin; W: Stuart Burkin, James Biederman, David A. Korn; C: Oliver Bokelberg; M: Paul Rabjohns. VIDEO

CASH CROP

A cash crop is any crop that a farmer sells for money, rather than holding it for use by his own family, or to feed livestock, or for bartering with others. For example if a farmer grows corn, wheat and soybeans, but sells only wheat on the open market for cash while feeding his corn to his livestock and bartering his soybeans for other goods, the wheat is his cash crop. Economists may also use the term to refer to any crop that is easily sold on the open market, such as wheat, cotton or tobacco, or to one that historically has produced a high rate of return on the grower's investment.

cash crop • n. a crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower.DERIVATIVES: cash crop·ping n.

cash crop Agricultural crop cultivated for its commercial value, as opposed to one grown for subsistence. The term is often encountered in development economics. Cash crops, such as coffee, sugar or cotton, were introduced into Africa, Asia and the Americas as part of the colonialist project and intensively farmed via plantation systems.