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[Introduction]: This article addresses some findings of a study from 1990 to 1995 of 'grass-roots' development ngos in remote areas. It draws on the author's book, Tales of Regional Development; Ngo-Community Cooperation in Outer Island Indonesia (Avebury, 1996). The study focussed on circumstances with unique features, but many problems unveiled resembled those elsewhere in Indonesia and other poorer parts of the world.

The effects of advancing economic growth on plantations are classed in five stages, starting with conditions in a backward subsistence economy and ending under circumstances where manufacturing is dominant and planting tree crops no longer economic. Changes in relative resource prices and other factors and consequent adjustments of estates and smallholdings are taken into account, doing this in light of international experiences with such crops. The case of natural rubber is scrutinized in depth, comparing economic effects and responses in chief producing countries. The key elements in plantation adjustments of market conditions, technologies, institutional arrangements, and government interventions are finally addressed, with policies likely to facilitate appropriate modifications being indicated.