How did Reconstruction benefit landowners in the agricultural economy of the South?

Landowners grew more than cotton.

Landowners benefited from Reconstruction because former slaves worked as sharecroppers, they kept 1/3 to 1/2 of the crop for themselves and this way they would rent small plots of land.

During the Reconstruction, many small white farmers started to produce cotton, what was a major change because before the war they concentrated on growing food for their own families. Cotton remained the South's most important crop and a new system of labor started.