Intensive vs. Extensive Farming & Key Agricultural Concepts
Intensive vs. Extensive Farming
Intensive farming is a method of farming located on a small area of land, which provides high yields due to the high investment it receives in labor or in the use of advanced techniques. Extensive agriculture is a way of farming that requires large tracts of land and provides low yields due to low investment and/or the use of traditional techniques.
Intensive Farming
Depends on the physical environment and animals are fed in the natural grasslands of humid Spain (northern peninsular and mountainous areas) or the peneplain pastures and stubble of dry Spain. Generally, it is associated with native breeds and traditional working techniques. While maintaining its importance in certain areas, it is evolving into mixed or intensive livestock farming.
Extensive Livestock Farming
It is unrelated to the physical environment; animals are kept indoors and fed with feed, in whole or in part. It is located in the vicinity of urban consumption centers in the northeast and mainland Mediterranean coast, especially pigs and poultry. This type of farming is associated with selected foreign breeds, uses modern techniques, and has a high dependence on imported fodder and compound feed, whose prices have shown sharp increases.
Agrarian Landscape
Agrarian landscapes are the morphology or aspect of the agricultural area. It is a combination of natural (physical factors) with farming practiced on it (human factors). The diversity of these combinations in Spanish territory explains the variety of its landscapes.
CAP (Common Agricultural Policy)
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the EU’s agricultural policy created in 1961 (Spain joined in 1986) in order to guarantee the level of life of farmers, stabilize markets, and ensure supplies to consumers.
Industrial Restructuring and Reindustrialization
To tackle the industrial crisis, the countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) adopted industrial restructuring policies since 1975. In Spain, these were delayed until the next decade due to political circumstances. Industrial restructuring has two complementary aspects: industrial restructuring and reindustrialization. Both were dealt with state aid: financial subsidies and credit, tax deductions and credits, and labor facilities for redundancy and early retirement.
Industrial Restructuring
The aim was to act in a short period of time on declining industries, making the necessary adjustments to ensure their viability and competitiveness.
Reindustrialization
The aim was to rebuild the industrial areas most affected by the conversion, creating in them a new economic and industrial future. This was intended to diversify economic activity and generate employment able to absorb workers from the conversion.
High-Tech Industry
High-tech industries are those that have a high technological intensity, strong product differentiation, and high demand. The leading sectors are electrical and electronic equipment, computers, and precision and optical instruments, among others.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process by which the tertiary sector of the economy becomes more important than the other two sectors (primary and secondary) to become the primary sector, both in terms of the working population and in the contribution to GDP.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is a concept that was first defined in 1987 in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission), Our Common Future (United Nations). It considers sustainable development as a model that is able to meet the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Industrial Offshoring
Industrial offshoring is the transfer of all or part of the activity of an industry from its traditional location to new industrial countries or regions with lower costs (salaries, taxes, etc.) or skilled workers. In Spain, it mostly affects sectors such as automotive, electronics, or electrical equipment that moves towards EU countries. It also affects the traditional industrial clothing and footwear sectors, given the low wages in Asia or North Africa.
Agricultural Holding
An agricultural holding is the techno-economic unit from which agricultural products are obtained under the responsibility of an entrepreneur. A land exploitation is considered one where the total area in one or more parcels is less than 0.1 ha, and a landless farm is one that does not have that dimension.