Agriculture & Fishing Glossary: Terms and Definitions
Agriculture & Fishing Glossary
A
Agriculture Market
This type of agriculture focuses on producing crops for market sale, also known as speculation agriculture. Common in developed countries, production is regulated by market prices.
Aquaculture
The practice of cultivating aquatic species (plants and animals) for controlled harvests. Aquaculture offers an alternative to overfishing and dwindling fish stocks, meeting growing demands. While mussel farming is prevalent, species like salmon, sea bream, and sea bass are also cultivated. Key areas for aquaculture include the Galician coast and the Ebro Delta, extending along the Spanish coastline.
Traditional Subsistence Agriculture
This type of agriculture prioritizes feeding the local population. Cropping often dominates this farming system.
Sharecropping
A form of indirect landholding where a contract between the landowner and farmer grants the farmer land use rights. The contract outlines the farming system and the percentage of production each party receives. The landowner provides land, machinery, seeds, fertilizers, and pays taxes, while the sharecropper provides labor.
Leasing
Another form of indirect landholding where the landowner rents their land to a farmer for a stipulated price.
B
Barbecho
A cropping system where land is left fallow for a specific period to prevent depletion. This system is associated with less advanced farming techniques that don’t utilize artificial fertilizers.
Fishing Banks or Fishing Zones
These are marine areas with abundant fish populations, making fishing profitable. Factors influencing fish abundance include plankton levels, continental shelf extent, proximity to colder, oxygenated waters, and the convergence of cold and warm currents.
Land Concentration
The process of consolidating rural plots within a specific area into larger, more regular, and accessible cultivation units.
C
Industrial Center
A city where industrial activity plays a significant economic role, combining manufacturing potential and a working-class structure. Often, a particular industry dominates, such as textiles in Catalan industrial centers.
Agricultural Cooperative
A group of farmers aiming to boost economic activity by streamlining production and maximizing profits. Increasingly common in Spain, cooperatives range from marketing products to processing and selling finished goods.
Crop Sanding
A technique involving layering sand over fertile soil to reduce water evaporation in sunny regions. Used for horticultural crops in southeastern Spain and the Canary Islands.
Hydroponics
Soilless cultivation where plants grow in a substrate (sand, gravel, peat, etc.) within containers. Nutrients are delivered through water, a system gaining popularity in Spain, particularly for vegetable cultivation in AlmerÃa and Murcia.
Public Deficit
The imbalance between government revenue (income) and expenses when income, capital, and official donations are less than total expenditures, excluding government-granted loans and depreciation.
Delocalization
Transferring all or part of the production process to other countries to optimize investment returns. This often involves seeking lower labor costs, tax benefits, cheaper industrial land, and less stringent labor laws in the destination country. Research, development, and product design typically remain in the origin country.
E
Stabling
A livestock farming method where animals are grouped in a stable, facilitating care, feeding, milking, and manure collection for higher yields. Cattle and swine adapt well, while goats and sheep are less suited, sometimes utilizing semi-stabling. Stabling is increasingly important in wet regions of Spain.
Industrial Specialization
A production system focusing on one or two specific products using the same machinery.
Extensive Farming
An agricultural or livestock system with low yields per unit area, such as rain-fed grain farming.
F
Structural Funds
Key financial instruments addressing socio-economic disparities in certain EU regions. Their objectives include developing lagging regions (per capita income below 75% of the EU average), supporting economic and social conversion in declining industrial regions, vulnerable rural areas, and fishing zones, and promoting human resources through education, training, and employment policies. These funds include ERDF, FEOGA, IFOP, and ESF.
Energy Source
The capacity to perform work and effect change. Energy sources can be primary (directly from nature, like oil or coal), secondary (derived from primary sources, like electricity), renewable (inexhaustible, like hydro, wind, solar), non-renewable (finite, like coal, oil, natural gas), traditional (most consumed, like coal and oil), or alternative (less common due to technical, cost, or production limitations).
G
Globalization
The intensification of international economic relations, concentrating decision-making power within a few entities. Driven by trade liberalization, deregulation, and increased capital mobility, globalization fosters international specialization. Multinational corporations benefit most, with key decision-making centers in the USA, EU, and Japan.
H
Rural Habitat
The grouping pattern of human settlements in rural areas. This can be dispersed (farmhouses within individual properties, common in humid Spain) or concentrated (homes clustered into hamlets, villages, or towns, typical of inland Spain).
I
Intensive Farming
An agricultural or livestock system with high yields per unit area, achieved through significant labor and capital investment, including fertilizers, machinery, and irrigation.
Capital Goods Industries
Industries producing semi-processed or processed goods for use in other production processes, traditionally associated with heavy industries like metallurgy and heavy chemistry.
Consumer Goods Industries
Industries producing goods for immediate consumption, such as textiles, food, footwear, and appliances.
Research
The systematic search for new knowledge or improvement of existing knowledge. In industry, it involves finding and developing new products and services or enhancing existing ones. Industrial research requires a skilled workforce and substantial capital investment.
L
Latifundio
Large farms (over 250 ha) characterized by absentee ownership, low yields, extensive farming, low wages, and minimal investment, common in Andalusia and Extremadura.
M
Mechanization
Using machines in production processes, such as plowing and harvesting in agriculture or machine milking in livestock farming.
Skilled Labor
Labor with high intellectual and technical training, essential for complex production processes.
Raw Material
Unprocessed mineral, animal, or plant products (iron, wool, cotton, etc.) used in industrial processes.
Machining
Applying machines in production to increase worker productivity and reduce costs.
Minifundio
Small farms that hinder efficient exploitation and mechanization, often failing to provide a minimum return for a family unit, common in Levantine Spain and Galician orchards.
Monoculture
Cultivating a single crop species, typical of market agriculture, but vulnerable to climate events, soil depletion, and price fluctuations.
P
Gross Domestic Product
The total value of final goods and services produced within a country, calculated as the sum of consumption, gross investment, government purchases, and net exports.
Industrial Landscape
An area dominated by industrial activities, characterized by large buildings, transport infrastructure, and potential environmental impact.
Technology Park
Industrial areas hosting tech industries, typically with smaller plots, quality buildings, strong telecommunications, and access to business services.
Biological Stop
A period when fishing is prohibited in a specific area or zone to prevent resource depletion and allow for reproduction.
Gross National Product
Gross domestic product plus the value of goods and services produced by nationals abroad, minus the value of goods and services produced by foreign entities within the country.
Agricultural Landscape
A region dominated by agriculture, defined by the natural landscape, farmer habitat, and farmland characteristics (plot size, shape, boundaries, cropping systems, and crop types).
Cultivation Plot
The smallest unit of farmland, defined by its shape, boundaries, ownership, and cropping systems. The combination of plots and rural habitat forms the rural landscape.
Continental Shelf
The underwater extension of the coast to a depth of 200 meters, the typical limit of light penetration and a prime fishing area. Spain’s continental shelf is relatively narrow.
Polyculture
Cultivating multiple crop species, characteristic of traditional subsistence agriculture.
R
Land Tenure
The relationship between landowner and farmer. Direct tenure occurs when they are the same person. Indirect tenure involves renting or sharecropping.
Reforestation
Planting trees in barren land or areas with sparse vegetation.
Industrial Region
A broader concept than an industrial center, encompassing varied industries operating independently and potentially serving multiple industrial centers within the region, often linked to large metropolitan areas.
Rainfed Agriculture
Crops relying solely on rainfall and humidity, typically yielding less than irrigated agriculture, common for grain farming on the plateau.
T
Types of Fishing
Fishing can be inshore (near shore, small boats, artisanal methods) or offshore (farther out, advanced techniques, larger vessels, requiring more resources and organization).
Assembly Line
A production method dividing the process into simple tasks, promoting worker specialization, increased productivity, and lower costs, but potentially leading to monotonous work.