which area of South America is a best for growing crops and why?
Answers
Answer: Tropical climates—which include both tropical rainy and tropical wet and dry climates—cover more than half of the continent. Tropical rainy conditions occur in the Amazon River basin, the northeastern coast, and the Pacific coast of Colombia. The regions’ average daily temperature is 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) with very little temperature variation throughout the year. While average annual rainfall is 262 centimeters (103 inches), some areas receive an extreme amount of precipitation; the Chocó region of Colombia, for example, receives more than 800 centimeters (315 inches) of rain every year.
Tropical wet and dry conditions occur in the Orinoco River basin, the Brazilian Highlands, and in a western section of Ecuador. Temperatures are similar to tropical rainy, but have a greater daily range. There is also less precipitation and a prolonged dry season.
Many crops thrive in the tropical climates of South America. Cashews and Brazil nuts are cultivated. Fruits such as avocado, pineapple, papaya, and guava are also native to tropical South America.
Two very important cash crops are coffee and cacao, which is the source of cocoa, the base ingredient in chocolate. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of coffee, and it used to be one of the largest exporters of cacao. In 2000, a fungus spread throughout many of South America’s cacao plantations, devastating the economies of the region and driving up the price of chocolate. The chocolate industries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador are slowly recovering, but most of the world’s cacao now comes from countries in tropical Africa.