cash crop

Meaning

1. 1nouncountablebusiness

   A plant grown mainly so that its harvest can be sold for money instead of being eaten by the grower's household.

   Grammar: Countable compound noun: coffee is a cash crop; farmers grow cash crops.

   Patterns

   • grow something as a cash crop
   • a cash crop for someone

   Coffee is the main cash crop for many small farms in the highlands.

   Many families abandoned maize for cotton, a more profitable cash crop.

   The government encouraged farmers to switch to cash crops for export.

Word forms

Common combinations

a major cash crop

Cocoa is a major cash crop in West Africa.

grow a cash crop

They grow tobacco as a cash crop and keep a small garden for vegetables.

switch to cash crops

After the drought, the village switched to cash crops to pay off debts.

depend on a cash crop

Economies that depend on one cash crop can be hurt when prices drop.

export cash crop

Tea remains the country's leading export cash crop.

Synonyms and how they differ

commercial crop

Commercial crop is a more formal textbook term with the same meaning, while cash crop is the usual phrase in news and everyday speech.

market crop

Market crop stresses the place of sale, while cash crop stresses that the point is earning money.

export crop

An export crop is sold abroad, so it is a narrower kind of cash crop.

Opposites

Word family

crop noun

Any plant grown and harvested for use.

cash noun

Money, the thing this crop is grown to earn.

cash-cropping noun

The practice of growing cash crops.

monoculture noun

Growing a single crop on a large area, often a cash crop.

Commonly confused: cash crop or staple crop?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “cash crop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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