Agriculture and Livestock: EU, Spain, and Global Practices
Plantation Agriculture
Plantation agriculture is situated in tropical or subtropical latitudes. Its cultivation is used for commercial purposes. Common commodities include coffee, tea, sugarcane, rubber, bananas, cocoa, peanuts, cotton, tobacco, textiles, citrus fruits, palm oil, cinchona, and pineapples. These plantations are often operated by companies with foreign capital, local or national cooperatives, and research institutes. They are directed towards species that offer better prospects in the international market, with the common threat of dependence on a single product or price fluctuations of these easily dispensable products.
Agriculture in the EU: Family Farms and Businesses
European agriculture is characterized by the importance of corn, wine, and olives. Some notable features are an aging farming population, the increasing concentration of ownership, and increasing mechanization of the field. Agriculture makes a small overall contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The EU, through compensation policies, aims to improve the competitiveness of farmers, with the grant of certain non-surplus crops.
Agriculture in Socialist Countries
In Russia today, the fall of communism has introduced a vacuum of technical support, which is only very slowly being overcome by private farms. In China, the most striking feature is the large percentage of the population engaged in farming. China is the world’s largest producer of rice, wheat, potatoes, peanuts, rapeseed, cotton, tobacco, and raw eggs.
Livestock
Livestock species involves the exploitation of animals for meat and other products (milk, leather, wool, etc.). The most common farming practices involve cattle, swine, sheep, and goats. Intensive livestock farming attempts to obtain the maximum benefits in a short space of time, with the concentration of livestock (stables), mechanization of production processes (milking machines), and reducing the time of breeding. By contrast, traditional extensive systems occur in natural ecosystems, without spatial concentration. Yields are low and generally do not cause environmental damage.
Agricultural Production in Spain
- Cereals and Plants: Corn is very important in the Atlantic region. In dry, irrigated areas, barley, wheat, and vineyards are common.
- Dry farming is preferably devoted to wheat and barley and is rotated with sugar beet, potatoes, or fodder.
- The high demand for water by rice restricts it to coastal lowlands and the Valencian region.
- Potatoes and vegetable crops have spread in the form of irrigation in the interior of the peninsula (lettuce, asparagus, and beans).
- Fruits: Along with vegetables, fruits form the bulk of Spanish agricultural exports and the base of the canning industry. Citrus fruits are particularly prominent. Bananas require constant high temperatures and therefore occur almost exclusively in the Canary Islands.
The Fishing Sector
Fish production occupies a small weight in the GDP, less than 1%. The northwest region accounts for nearly a third of the total fishing, followed in importance by Cantabria and the southern Atlantic (Cadiz and Huelva). As for the type of catch, sardines stand out for their volume, followed far behind by whiting or hake. The growing demand for fish, compared to limited marine catches, has prompted aquaculture of both marine and freshwater species.
The Spain of Autonomy
The Spanish public administration is hinged from the municipalities and the provinces or islands. The management and administration of the municipalities are handled by municipalities, the provinces by provincial councils, and the islands by the Councils (Canary Islands) or Consells (Balearic Islands). The provincial government is also defined as a local authority with legal personality resulting from the grouping of municipalities and territorial division for the performance of state activities.
Autonomous communities consist of various organs, producing the legislative, executive, and judicial basic state:
- Legislature: Elected by universal suffrage.
- Government Council: Executive and administrative functions, whose president is elected by the Assembly and appointed by the King, accounting for the direction of the government.
- Superior Court of Justice: In the territory of the autonomous region, subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
Numerous state competitions have been transferred to the autonomous communities, in branches such as education, health, and employment.