Agricultural and Rural Terminology: Definitions and Concepts

Posted on Dec 4, 2024 in Geography

Vocabulary

Economic and Trade Terms

  • Tariff Barrier: Taxes imposed on importers and exporters for customs entry or exit of goods.
  • Confiscation: A process where economic goods in mortmain become inalienable or go to public procurement.
  • Protectionism: An economic policy protecting domestic products by imposing restrictions or tariffs on foreign imports.
  • Productivity: The ratio of output produced by a production system and the resources used.
  • Structural Funds: Financial instruments from the European Commission to strengthen the EU’s economic and social cohesion.
    • EAGGF: Expenditure on agriculture, environment, development, and structural measures.
    • ESF: An EU Structural Fund reducing prosperity and living standard differences between regions and Member States.
  • CAP (Common Agricultural Policy): A key policy and essential element of the EU’s institutional system, managing grants for agricultural production.

Rural and Land Use Terms

  • Rural Exodus: Emigration, usually of young people, from the countryside to the city.
  • Latifundio: A large farm characterized by inefficient resource use.
  • Sharecropping: An arrangement where a landowner engages a person to farm in exchange for a percentage of the results.
  • Doubling Rural: Forms of human occupation in a rural area.
  • Habitat Dispersed: Housing that is spread apart, typically in areas of intensive agriculture.
  • Habitat Linear: Houses arranged along a road or highway.
  • Habitat Crowded: Houses grouped around a nucleus.
  • Habitat Interlayer: A mixture of concentrated and dispersed housing.
  • Periurbano: The geographical area occupied by interstitial space vacated by urban areas.
  • Suburbs: Areas located close to the city.
  • Land Consolidation: Grouping an owner’s parcels into the fewest possible number.
  • Deep-Rural Area: An impoverished, asthenic area with some reserve, characterized by an aging society and difficult living conditions.
  • Dehesa: A forest of oak and cork oak with grasslands or shrublands, used for livestock keeping.
  • Fishing Area: Sea areas where fishermen cast their nets due to favorable conditions for abundant fish.
  • Cortijo: Dispersed rural habitat typical of southern Spain, consisting of residential and agricultural units.
  • Troglodyte Houses: A subtype of solar bioclimatic architecture leveraging underground spaces for a cozy and durable retreat.
  • Fallow: Land not sown for one or more vegetation cycles to recover organic matter and moisture.

Agricultural Practices and Production

  • Production of Our Land: The basis of all considerations and projections of the agricultural economy.
  • Pesticides: Chemicals designed to kill, repel, attract, regulate, or stop the growth of pests.
  • Hydroponics: A method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil.
  • Vecera: Plants that bear fruit in one year and not in others.
  • Forage Crop: Crops for animal feed.
  • Trashumante: A mobile form of pastoralism, adapting to areas of changing productivity.
  • Extended-System: Large-scale land use with less intensive resource exploitation for long-term results.
  • Polyculture: Agriculture using multiple crops in the same area, imitating natural ecosystem diversity.
  • Organic Farming: A system using natural resources without synthetic chemicals or GMOs.
  • Aquaculture: The cultivation of aquatic plants and animals.
    • Astacicultura: Estuary shellfish and egg production and animals for restocking.
  • Poultry: The branch dealing with breeding, exploitation, and reproduction of domestic birds.