The coastal lowlands, up to an altitude of about 2,500 feet (750 meters), encompass an area known as the hot land (tierra calienta). Temperatures there average between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (22 and 24 degrees Celsius), and plantation agriculture abounds. Plantations are huge commercial farming operations that grow large quantities of crops that are usually sold for export. Because of their easy access to port facilities, coastal lowlands historically have been linked with the markets of Europe and North America.
The banana is one of the best-known examples of a plantation crop. It grows well in the wet, hot climate of this zone and has been cultivated there for U.S. and European markets since 1866. In the 1990's, more bananas were traded on the international fruit market than any other commodity. In South America, Ecuador and Brazil are the leading banana producers, with Colombia third. Cacao, the bean pods from which cocoa and chocolate are made, is also grown on plantations in this zone. The largest producing area for cacao is Ghana in West Africa, but Brazil and Ecuador are fifth and sixth in world yearly production.
Although sugarcane is grown in almost every country in South America, it does well as a plantation crop in the lowlands of eastern Brazil, the world's largest exporter. There the crop is not used just to produce sugar but also to produce ethanol for gasohol, an alcohol-based gasoline that fuels more than half the automobiles in Brazil. This type of commercial agriculture has made agricultural business the fastest-growing part of the Brazilian economy. Yams, cassava, and other root crops used as staple foods also grow well in this humid, hot climate.
See also: Tierra Templada, Tierra Fria
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