An organisational analysis of plantation agriculture
1994
Goldthorpe, C.C. (International Natural Rubber Organisation, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia))
Tropical tree crop commodity production in plantations is analysed from an organisation theory perspective. The characteristics of plantation agriculture are that it is a high input/high output farming system with production undertaken in organisations with a full bureaucratic internal structure. Plantations are characterised by a formal hierarchy of management control, specialisation of the workforce and standardisation of agricultural production methods. It is argued that large scale plantation agriculture enjoys no advantage in economies of scale over smallholding agriculture in the cultivation of tree crops. The economies of scale in the primary processing of the harvested crop, on the other hand, are considerable especially for oil palm, rubber and tea. The technological determinism school of organisation theory suggests that there is a close link between the technology of production and organisation structure. An analysis of the technology of production of tree crop plantation agriculture supports the arguments of the technological determinist school for the most suitable internal structure of the plantation organisation to be a bureaucracy. Plantations may, therefore, have an organisational comparative advantage over small family farms for tree crop commodity production in the tropics
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