Cash crop

In regions with a tropical climate, coffee,[5][6] cocoa, sugar cane, bananas,[6] oranges, cotton and jute are common cash crops.

[citation needed] For example, in Burkina Faso 85% of its residents (over two million people) are reliant upon cotton production for income, and over half of the country's population lives in poverty.

[8] Larger farms tend to grow cash crops such as coffee,[9] tea,[9] cotton, cocoa, fruit[9] and rubber.

Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a relatively small income for families, but generally fail to produce enough to make re-investment possible.

The situation in which African nations export crops while a significant number of people on the continent struggle with hunger has been blamed on developed countries, including the United States,[8] Japan and the European Union.

[citation needed] These countries protect their own agricultural sectors, through high import tariffs and offer subsidies to their farmers,[8] which some have contended is leading to the overproduction of commodities such as cotton,[8] grain and milk.

[citation needed] The result of this is that the global price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to compete in world markets,[8] except in cash crops that do not grow easily in temperate climates.

[13] Italy's Cassa per il Mezzogiorno in 1950 led to the government implementing incentives to grow cash crops such as tomatoes, tobacco and citrus fruits.

Cash cropping of fruits rose to prominence after the baby boomer generation and the end of World War II.

It was seen as a way to feed the large population boom and continues to be the main factor in having an affordable food supply in the United States.

[15] Cash crop farmers have utilized precision agricultural technologies[16] combined with time-tested practices to produce affordable food.

[citation needed] For their livelihood they depend on the production of cash crops, basic commodities that are hard to differentiate in the market.

Coca, opium poppies and cannabis are significant black market cash crops, the prevalence of which varies.