I have an idea to do a plugin that give bonus or penalties to farming in certain biomes i will do an e.g: Le Derp(player) plants a "Wheat" in a "Desert Biome". After a certain time the seed of the "Wheat" doens't grow because the "Desert Biome" is too arid and sunny to "Wheat", BUT, the "Sugar Cane" is perfect to be planted in a "Desert" or a "Plains". Like a "Cactus", that only be planted in a "Desert Biome" (okay, we know, only in sand). It's possible to do a plugin based in that idea? Because i want my player don't do Farms in any location, i want to balance the server economy with War and Farm's. It's a awesome ideia, but, i don't know how to do plugins and if the code will purpose that plugin.
I think you can listen to the block grow event and cancel the event randomly when the biome is not good for it. I think it will grow slower, but I can be that they will break. Test this: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/plantfailure/