Key Factors Shaping Spanish Agriculture: An In-Depth Analysis
**Space Factors of Production**
The agricultural area occupies 40% of the total area of Spanish territory, which is about 20,200,000 hectares (ha). The continuing process of mechanization and automation has resulted in a loss of jobs. The current state of farming today, as well as its evolution over the century, depends on three types of factors: natural, human, and socioeconomic and political.
**Natural Factors**
Agricultural activity is based on the economic exploitation of the natural environment, ensuring profitable and competitive production. The main physical aspects that will affect agricultural activity will be the altitude, the provision of relief, soil, and climate.
**A. Relief, Altitude, Mountainous Nature, and Arrangement of Relief**
One of the most significant physical features of Spain is its high average altitude. In Spain, only 11% of our land is below that limit. We can therefore say that the most suitable land is scarce.
**B. Soil**
Soil is the natural formation of the Earth’s surface and mobile structure of variable thickness, resulting from the transformation of the underlying bedrock under the influence of different physical, chemical, and biological processes. In dry Iberia, Mediterranean Spain, we can distinguish two types of soils depending on the substrate they settle on:
- On calcareous substrates, we can find several types, but all are basic soils, including:
- Red soils (Alfisols), typical of Ciudad Real and Badajoz, present this typical color due to their high content of minerals, especially iron. They are quite rich soils for agricultural practice.
- Subdesert soils (Entisols), typical of the Ebro Valley, present a pale and very dry gray color, but if they have water to irrigate them, they can be suitable for agricultural practice.
- Brown limestone soils (Inceptisols), characteristic of the edges of the Ebro Valley, northeast of the Duero basin, the Pyrenees, the Iberian System, and the Balearic Islands. They are suitable for agriculture.
- Black soils (Vertisols), which are most suitable for agriculture due to their high humus content. They occupy large areas of the Andalusian countryside.
- On siliceous substrates, poor soils appear, such as brown land and xero-ranker, that are highly acidic and low in humus, showing little agricultural suitability.
In wet Iberia, Atlantic Spain, evolved soils are due to climate and vegetation cover. We can find several types:
- Brown siliceous soils are located in the western half and are unsuitable for agriculture because they are acidic.
- Brown limestone soils and brown soils in the eastern half are more suitable for farming.
Each soil is best suited to one type of crop or another. Cereals or potatoes prefer acid soils, while fruit, olive, and beetroot prefer basic soils. Soil is a physical factor that is easy to fix because of fertilizers. However, the soil is fragile and always threatened by erosion; desertification processes appear that concern us greatly.
**C. Climate**
Climate is a condition of great importance. The weather will be a condition for different aspects: temperature, precipitation (type, amount, and distribution), fog, and sunshine.
- Atlantic agricultural domain: It occupies 22.5% of Spanish territory, from the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia. The acreage is a bit long and can be occupied by crops such as potatoes, corn, and rye. It is a space for livestock use.
- Warm Mediterranean domain: Stretching along the Mediterranean coastal plains, from Gerona to Huelva, it is characterized by high temperatures and adequate sunlight but has a significant shortage of rainfall.
- Cold Mediterranean domain: Spain is situated in the interior of this continentalized Mediterranean climate. In this agricultural area, there is great potential for irrigation.
**Human Factors**
**A. Socioeconomic Factors**
- The Land: The structure of land ownership is characterized by the dominance of large estates (latifundios) and small farms (minifundios), addressing the shortage of medium-sized holdings. Property owners with more than 100 ha. As to their spatial distribution, we find that in the north, small and medium-sized land dominates, plus they tend to be scattered. In contrast, there is a great property that can be found in Andalusia, Aragon, Extremadura, Salamanca, and some provinces, but the median property in the south is of less importance.
- The Farm or Tenure: Tenure is the relationship between the landowner and the farmer who cultivates. Not always the owner of the land is dedicated to its operation, so we can distinguish between:
- Direct operating system: When the same farmer, businessman, and landowner are the same person.
- Indirect operating system: When the owner and farmer/businessman are different people. In this case, we can find two different situations:
- Sharecropping: The owner provides the land, machinery, seeds, and fertilizers and pays taxes, while the farmer puts in his work. This system is declining.
- Lease: Consists of the owner of the land renting or transferring it to the farmer, who goes to work in exchange for money. It is undergoing a positive evolution.
As for the evolution of the farms, we can claim to have reduced the number of these, especially the small ones. A plot is the smallest unit of a farm. This plot is defined by its shape, boundaries, ownership, and types and cropping systems.
A minifundio is a farm of small size that does not allow proper operation. The minifundio is common in Galicia and the Levantine orchards. A latifundio is a large farm (over 100 ha). It is characterized by the absence of the owner, low yield, extensive farming or livestock, low wages, and low investment.
- The Agricultural Workforce: The volume and importance of the farming population have been decreasing almost continuously throughout the past century, from representing 69% of the workforce in 1900 to 4.1% today.
**B. Technical Progress**
All that labor that has left the natural environment has been replaced by the introduction of machinery such as tractors, combines, cultivators, etc. To measure the rate of mechanization, we talk about when we use machines for machining different agricultural tasks such as plowing, harvesting, etc., or in livestock, mechanical milking. On the other hand, the evolution of fertilizer consumption has been increasing, and the use of selected seeds was also very important, achieving improved yields.
Crops under plastic is an agricultural harvesting system based on the establishment of a plastic cover, normally arched, which helps to create conditions of higher temperature and moisture than the surrounding environment for faster development of the crop, allowing the collection of various harvests. Enarenado is a farming technique that consists of superimposing a layer of sand over another layer of fertile soil to prevent evaporation of water in areas of strong sunlight. Hydroponics is a technique of growing plants without using soil; it consists of bringing a substrate material (sand, gravel, peat, rock wool, etc.) in containers where plant roots are developed, and nutrients that the plant needs to develop are provided dissolved in water. This system is increasingly used in our country; it is very common in vegetable cultivation in the area of Almeria and Murcia. Hydroponics has several advantages, like faster growth and maturation.
Expansion of irrigation and new techniques of irrigation, like drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation, have allowed the cultivation of arid areas and the intensification of others. Policies are developed in parallel, saving irrigation water. Irrigation is the culture system in which the crops will contribute an extra amount of water because the humidity is not sufficient. When talking about irrigation systems, we can talk about different types:
- Traditional Irrigation: Irrigation system consisting of puddling the entire cultivated area. This system requires a complex irrigation system of canals, ditches, dams, ponds, wells, etc. This system is doomed to disappear because it is a waste of water compared to other irrigation systems, especially in areas where water is scarce.
- Spray Irrigation: Irrigation system that reproduces the conditions of rain.
- Drip Irrigation: Irrigation is a form consisting of a water metering system, piping, and valves that open when the humidity is below the required level. These latter systems are known as localized irrigation.
However, rainfed agriculture is still present in the Spanish agricultural landscape, or a farming system where crops have only water from rainfall and humidity; that is, there is not an extraordinary contribution of water through irrigation.
**Agricultural Policy**
Some of the problems to be overcome are:
- High degree of concentration of ownership in certain areas (latifundios).
- Minifundio exploitation and dispersal of plots.
- Use of outdated techniques.
- Low agricultural yields.
The agricultural policy followed in Spain is the result of the confluence of a set of sectoral policies, often uncoordinated, carried out by different institutions and agencies, which are far from achieving adequate rural development, although the approach to departure has been the target.