Agricultural Evolution and Policies in Spain: A Regional Analysis
Agricultural Policies
In the last two centuries, Spain has implemented various agricultural policies to solve the country’s most serious problems: the social structure of the land, water shortages, and excessive fragmentation of tenements.
Agricultural Policy in the Past
In the nineteenth century, various disentailment processes were carried out to end the concentration of land ownership in the hands of the nobility and clergy. However, the confiscations were unable to end the unequal distribution of property, and the problem continued, especially in Andalusia, Extremadura, and Castilla-La Mancha. At the end of that century, politicians and intellectuals defended regeneration and irrigation as means to develop agriculture. The idea was picked up by the Administration: in 1902, the Forward Plan of Canals and Irrigation Reservoirs was developed, and in the late 1920s, Hydrographic Confederations were created to manage water resources. In 1932, during the Second Republic, agrarian reform was launched, which authorized the expropriation and distribution of a number of large estates and the settlement of thousands of peasants. The following year, the National Plan of Water Resources, prepared by Manuel Lorenzo Pardo, was presented. Its main objective was to increase the irrigated area to about 1.5 million hectares. After the Civil War, agrarian policy was oriented towards a policy of colonization. Its main purpose was to colonize large areas, primarily “large irrigated areas”, i.e., those that were to be processed for irrigation through the construction of large reservoirs. In the mid-twentieth century, land consolidation was launched to reduce the number of parcels per farm and thus facilitate mechanization and achieve a more rational use of land. In that decade and the following, the policy of expansion of irrigated areas continued, highlighting the major regional Plans of Badajoz, Jaén, Tierra de Campos, etc., and the construction of large hydraulic works, for example, the Tagus-Segura transfer in the east, which became operational in the 1970s.
Agrarian Policy Today
The current National Irrigation Plan is closely related to the National Water Plan. It runs until 2008 and has three basic objectives: modernization and consolidation of existing irrigated areas, improvement in irrigation water management, and the creation of new irrigation systems only in areas of great interest and in crops with higher added value. This new direction represents a shift in agricultural policy regarding previous times. Spain’s entry into the EU has had a major impact on primary activities. First, it has further underlined the need to reform the structure of Spanish agriculture to make it more competitive in the international market. Therefore, the CAP includes measures such as support for mountainous regions, which are in danger of depopulation, and those with specific problems such as salinity, soil, swamps, etc. This is achieved through a policy of subsidies and grants, primarily through the EAGGF-Guarantee, which FEGA, an independent organization under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, handles payments. For this, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAFF) prepares the Agricultural Census periodically (most recently in 1999) and the Survey on the Structure of Agricultural Holdings. These documents are an important element in comparing the situation of agriculture in EU Member States and, therefore, for the guidance of the CAP. On the other hand, we can say that our country’s entry into the EU has benefited, in general, those productions in which the EU is negative (e.g., fruits and meat from sheep and goats) and has hurt those others in which the EU is in surplus (as production of milk), which has led to the establishment of a quota system to control surpluses. FEGA is also responsible for the operation and regulation of agricultural markets. Since the reform of the CAP and Agenda 2000, and a structural policy and a policy of agricultural markets, the EU rural policy also includes an environmental policy.
Concentration Policy
Its objectives are to achieve greater productivity and curb emigration. The positive balance increased with the introduction of irrigation and new crops and techniques. The negative balance is that irrigation tried to become a substitute for land reform in the Second Republic and did not create agribusiness.
Reparcelling
In 1952, a plan was approved that focused on plots that had any problems with entry. Each plot had one way, and many of them were small and far apart. It was mainly done in Castilla (northern sub-plateau).
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
Its objectives are to:
- Protect the agricultural sector compared to European competition
- Secure supplies
- Stabilize markets
- Establish a common agricultural policy
- Increase production
- Ensure a fair standard of living for farmers
- Ensure reasonable prices for the consumer
Regional Analysis
Atlantic Spain
The north and northwest side of the Peninsula has a relatively humid climate throughout the year and a generally very rough topography. In this context, the main primary activities that develop are livestock and logging in the interior, and fishing in the abundant coastal areas. Grassland explains the traditional livestock development, the dominant activity within the primary activities of communities located in this space. In recent decades, livestock production has undergone a huge transformation, directed towards a modern farm, with a focus on dairy cattle, but now premiums to beef cattle have increased. Forestry also has great economic significance. Deciduous trees predominate, mostly hardwoods, such as beech, oak, chestnut, etc., although now much of the forest is occupied by some fast-growing species introduced by humans, such as maritime pine, including conifers and eucalyptus, which refers to the leafy. Agriculture is much less developed than farming and exploitation of forests. Traditional crops are maize, wheat, and potatoes for the consumption of the farmer and his family, and fodder to feed livestock. In recent years, the area under polyculture has suffered a gradual decline, while the area under fodder crops has increased. In Atlantic Spain, small farms (smallholding), excessively fragmented, are dominant. It is a landscape of enclosed fields: the plots are bounded by hedgerows, stone walls, fences, wires, etc. There are abundant grasslands and forests, and there is a dispersed settlement.
Part-Time Agriculture
It considers agriculture as a sideline after a full-time job (similar to sharecropping).
Interior Spain
In most of the interior of the peninsula, the climate is continental Mediterranean (characterized by extreme temperatures, very hot in summer and very cold in winter, and low rainfall, especially during the summer) and the topography is highly contrasted. In these lands, agriculture is the basis of the economy. In this huge space, there are sharply contrasting agricultural landscapes:
- In the mountains and in the peneplains, forestry and extensive livestock farming predominate. Agricultural use is only possible in the valleys, where there is a subsistence polyculture of cereals in rotation with potatoes and fodder.
- In the countryside, rainfed crops are included. This is, in general, extensive agriculture in some areas of poor performance, even using traditional farming systems such as crop rotation and fallow. The most important crops are typically Mediterranean (cereals, vines, and olive trees), but they are in decline due primarily to the serious problems of overproduction occurring in all of the EU. The main cereal areas are in the northern sub-plateau and Guadalajara, some provinces of the Ebro valley and the southern sub-plateau, and the hectic plains. The vineyard and olive groves occupy a greater extent in the southern sub-plateau and in Andalusia, the first highlighted in Ciudad Real and the Upper Guadalquivir. By contrast, industrial crops, mainly sunflower and sugar beet, have experienced great development, especially in the northern sub-plateau, Caceres, and La Mancha in the southern sub-plateau and western Andalusia. Alongside these crops, a preferably old sheep herd has been developed, which leverages the grass of fallow land, and in some cases even practiced transhumance. In Extremadura, pigs have a great weight.
- The irrigated areas have been transformed into a great expansion in recent decades, especially due to the construction of reservoirs and canals. Sugar beet and cereals are grown in the northern sub-plateau, horticultural crops in the Ebro valley, and vega products, corn, and other crops, like rice or flowers, in the southern sub-plateau.
The promotion of food quality has become a key player in the future of many agricultural products and, generally, rural areas. One of the basic mechanisms of this policy are the designations of quality (Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications), which recognize the quality of different wines, cheeses, olive oils, pulses, etc. In the interior of Spain, small farms and large estates coexist. For example, in the Ebro basin, small farms are dominant, in turn largely fragmented, while in Andalusia, large property is dominant. Except in areas of gardens, concentrated settlement is dominant.
The Mediterranean Coast and Balearic Islands
Mediterranean coastal plains and the Balearic Islands have a typical Mediterranean climate, with high temperatures and low rainfall, especially during the summer. That is why agriculture has traditionally been a major development. Traditional agriculture was rain-fed agriculture, whose main crops were wheat, olives, and vines. Irrigated agriculture was limited to the orchards located in the lower courses of rivers. However, at present, irrigation represents a much higher value than dryland farming. It is, therefore, mainly irrigated agriculture; the only dry land remains in agriculture far from the coast. This intensive agriculture uses modern techniques (sanded, crops under plastic, drip irrigation…), getting two, three, or even four harvests per year and dramatically transforming the landscape (that is the case, for example, the Campo de Dalias in Almería). It is, therefore, an agriculture that is very profitable and predominantly oriented towards foreign markets, especially towards the countries of the European Union. The main crops are vegetables (tomatoes, artichokes, onions, melons, beans…), present along the coast, especially in Valencia, Murcia, Almeria, and the Ebro River delta. Citrus fruits (oranges, tangerines…) and non-citrus fruits (peach, pear, apricot, plum…) are also of great economic significance, especially in Valencia and Murcia, in the first case, and Catalonia in the second. In some cases, the two utilizations are mixed in the same plot, resulting in a landscape of wooded gardens. Rice fields are a characteristic landscape of the Albufera (Valencia), Ebro River Delta, and the Lower Guadalquivir, where wetlands are taken advantage of. Thanks to new techniques, certain subtropical crops have been introduced in areas near the southern shores of the peninsula. Livestock is not very important now. It has a greater weight in Catalonia, where cattle stand out, for the production of milk and meat, and pigs, with production-oriented farms being meat-producing. With a medium and even small size, the Mediterranean coast of Spain and the Balearic Islands offer, broadly, a landscape of gardens and orchards dotted with huts for working machinery or irrigation infrastructure.
The Canary Islands
The Canary Islands show, due to the proximity of the tropics, a subtropical climate, characterized by mild and pleasant temperatures throughout the year and poor rains. The inadequacy of water resources, coupled with the lack of fertile soil (due to the dominance of volcanic rocks) and a very rugged topography, partly explain the uniqueness of the agricultural landscape of the Canary Islands. To cope with water scarcity, irrigation from groundwater and seawater, which is made drinkable in desalination plants, has been used. Moreover, because of the precariousness of fertile soils, the volcanic layer has been drilled to reach the richer soils, and new cropping systems have been developed (e.g., sand culture). Similarly, “Sorribas” have traditionally been built for terraced slopes. Despite these difficulties, agriculture is an important source of revenue for the Canary Islands: it holds a stake of around 3% in the GVA of the community. It is net agriculture with a commercial vocation. Since the early twentieth century, the fundamental products have been bananas and other subtropical fruits, potatoes, and tomatoes, the latter almost entirely for export to EU countries.