UGANDA:
SOCIO-ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
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PLANTATION FARMING

As mentioned earlier, only a few crops are produced on large plantations. These are mainly coffee, tea and sugarcane. Some rice, bananas and pineapples are grown on smaller plantations. The most remarkable plantations are:

· The enormous Kakira Sugar estate near Jinja,
· Kinyara sugar estate
· Lugazi sugar estate
· Large tea estates in the west, and in the east near Jinja.

Characteristics of plantations:

· High level of mechanisation.
· Very high level of capital investment.
· Self sufficient in most technical and manpower needs.
· Processing plants/factories on site.
· Very large.
· Use of irrigation.
· Employ large number of workers.
· Provide social services for workers and surrounding areas.
· One type of crop.
· Well-developed infrastructure; roads, and social amenities.
· Mainly owned by foreigners and large multinational companies.

Economic importance of plantations:

- Process crops for export
- Provide employment for a large number of people.
- Encourage out-grower schemes
- Provide support to out-growers with machinery, seed and pesticide.
- Provide valuable supplementary income to peasant smallholders
- Foreign earnings from export of products



THE LARGE KAKIRA SUGAR PLANTATION NEAR JINJA TOWN AND LAKE VICTORIA



A TEA PLANTATION NEAR JINJA TOWN



A COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE GARDEN
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Last update: June, 2004