Rural Spain: Agriculture, Livestock, and Forestry
The Rural Area
It is a territory that has been undeveloped agricultural space where agriculture, livestock, and forestry are developed. Because of the recreational service industries, rural areas have become more heterogeneous and complex, and the issue is broader.
Physical Factors and Human Elements
The Natural Environment
a) The relief shows a high altitude and abundant erosion slopes, which make mechanization difficult. 70% of the land is between 200 and 1000 meters high. b) The climate is characterized by low and erratic rainfall, hail storm frequency, temperature extremes such as frost or intense sunlight, and arid soils of poor quality that suffer erosion problems, which reduces fertility.
The Agrarian Structure
The traditional agrarian structure is characterized by the use of labor-intensive work in small farms and large farms extensively with backward technology because the yield is low, and the produce is for the protected domestic market and self-consumption with tariffs. The current agrarian structure is characterized by low employment, an aging population, and a progressive increase in farms incorporating technological progress. There is a high production yield, and specialization tends to sell to a more liberalized global market.
The Rural Population and Recent Changes
a) The population employed in land-based activities is scarce and old. There are differences between the low figure of the farming population in Madrid and the Basque Country (around 1%) and higher values in Extremadura and Galicia (more than 8%). The main cause has been the rural exodus reasoned by the mechanization of agricultural work and urban services industry, which provoked the depopulation of the most underdeveloped rural areas. b) Demographic trends are a sequel to the demographic decline and aging of rural areas. Due to the negative natural growth, migration, and retirement of farmers, greater on less profitable farms, some recovery and rejuvenation of more dynamic rural areas is observed. This is related to the settlement of immigrants for agricultural tasks, new residential, industrial, and suburban services, and rural tourism grants.
Farms and Recent Changes
a) The agricultural area is divided into: land plots (boundaries are precise, belonging to an owner) and farms (all plots worked by the same agricultural product, regardless of whether they are separated from one another or their ownership). b) Recent transformations affecting the physical size of farms have been characterized predominantly by the lack of extreme values. The average size holding represents 67.8% of the total in 2005 and meets only 10.4% of the utilized agricultural area. In some cases, smallholdings are worked part-time, generating income from other modern, more profitable horticultural operations worked full-time. The large holding represents 4.6% of the total and captures 56.8% of the utilized agricultural surface. In the course of estates, there is a disinterest from small owners in investment, extensive cultivation, and low yields. Many large estates today have become capitalist enterprises with high yields. “The regime is the degree of mastery of all in the case of land property and is limited to the other. The tendency of the owner and the direct operator are the same person. The indirect owner yields the land holding to another person for payment of the harvest rate “partnership” or payment of rent “lease.” In Spain, leasing has decreased, and sharecropping has increased.
Technical and Agricultural Systems and Subsequent Changes
“The technical changes have provided advances in the incorporation of mechanization in tasks, genetic selection of seeds and livestock breeds, or the use of chemical fertilizers. Transformations of agricultural systems have resulted in a growing intensification of production and a parallel increase in yield.
The Bending and the Rural Habitat
These are two elements of rural areas that have undergone remarkable changes.
The Bending and Subsequent Rural Recent Changes
a) The rural settlement is the set of existing human settlements in rural areas. Municipalities in Spain are considered rural up to 10,000 inhabitants; strictly rural areas have less than 2,000, and semi-rural areas have between 2,000 and 10,000. The source of rural bending is related to physical factors, especially topography and the presence of economic factors such as water availability, and historical factors such as reconquest. Growth is related to the historical period. Typology answered two models: concentrated and dispersed, with a variety of intermediate situations. In dispersed bending, the cottage is separated from other houses and is surrounded by tenements formed by cultivation fields, meadows, or forests. They have various forms: Scattered houses are isolated from each other. Confined to certain spaces of the Cantabrian medium mountains and the valley of the Pas. Dispersed houses in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees are scattered, formed from primitive cores. Population growth is due to the desire to exploit new agricultural areas. Houses share relations with concentrated cores, sharing a parish, municipality, or market. It predominates in areas of medium mountains. Scattered clusters of small houses or villages are characteristic of the Cantabrian cornice. Concentrated bending in rural houses and villas are grouped, forming location-independent peoples of the tenements. This extends throughout the Spanish territory and prevails in the interior of the peninsula. In the southern half, they are larger and are separated by others. The concentrated bending represents two basic modalities: linear, with houses arranged along a pathway or road, and crowded houses clustered around a core irregularly or more or less regularly. b) Transformations – In the interior, settlements have been downsized due to the rural exodus, particularly in areas with poor access and mainly on the Mediterranean coast, crowded with tourist hotels, housing estates, and facilities. In rural-suburban areas (spaces located on the urban periphery of transition between the city and the field, where land uses and forms of life are mixed), there is population and economic growth, incorporating the ends next to the urban cores for residential uses and recreation.
The Rural Habitat and its Recent Transformations
A rural habitat is constituted by rural settlements, housing, and other units. Its morphology depends on the material used in building the house. Household materials using irregular stones (masonry) or regular blocks placed together without cement or clay or lime dominate the peninsular periphery. Intricate wooden house structures contain wood visible on the exterior, filled with masonry or brick, characteristic of the Basque Country (farmhouse), Pine Land in Segovia, and the Alcarria of Guadalajara. Houses using raw clay mixed with dried straw, shaped into sun-dried blocks (adobe) or placed on wooden panels (cob), are characteristic of both plateaus. Currently, clay or brick dominates. The schemes are related to the activity developed on the land by its people. The house contains locked dependencies under one roof: house, barn, granary, and storehouse. The house floor is only one floor flush. The dependency may be unique or not. The house is divided up by plants, with agricultural dependence on the lower floor and housing on the upper floor. The house consists of buildings made different for each function, arranged around an open or closed patio. Recent changes are due to the traditional disappearance of the origin of the living home. This, in turn, causes the destruction of or substitution by new typologies that mimic urban villas and the loss of cultural heritage.
Agricultural Policy
These are actions affecting rural areas. In Spain, the great experiment of transforming politics after the accession of the European Community in 1986 was the adoption of the CAP.
Agricultural Policy Since the Mid-Nineteenth Century Until the CAP
a) The system of land ownership is trying to change. Secularization did not alter the property in a few hands. The agrarian reform of the Second Republic failed in its attempt to expropriate large estates and settle farmers. The politics of colonization and expansion of the Franco regime jeopardized extensive private areas by the state. b) Inadequate property size was addressed by land consolidation, and the large estates law was transferred to the autonomous communities in 1985 and continues. Smallholdings aim to reduce the dispersion of land, giving each owner a plot of land equivalent to the classes and types of cultivation they had before and giving access to railway communication. As a consequence, fewer, more regular, and larger plots emerged, and a new network of roads was created. The law on large farms began under Franco and was modified during the transition to democracy. It aims to prevent large, largely uncultivated estates. It requires owners to submit an improvement plan; if it fails, it forces the lease of land for 12 years. c) Tariffs established commercial protectionism for agricultural products from abroad to avoid domestic competition. d) Increase yields through the introduction of technical improvements in irrigation and extension.
The Common Agricultural Policy and its Implications
a) Spain joined the European Common Market. In the internal market, common organizations set maximum and minimum prices for representative products. When the minimum is not reached, the EU intervenes to prevent a price drop. Free trade in Europe has allowed Spanish products to access a market of millions of consumers with high purchasing power. It forces increased competitiveness by modernizing farms, increasing performance and quality, for which they have received Community funds. b) Spain has been affected by the EU’s agricultural activity problems. To combat them, measures were adopted in the reform of the CAP. High prices in European products compared to the world market have led to a reduction in minimum prices. The existence of agricultural and livestock surpluses (cereals, wine, milk, beef) has led to measures to promote the cessation of activity, production quotas, and encouraging extensification and fallow forestry. In 2006, aid independent of production was established for each holding, allowing farmers to produce according to market needs, consumer demands, health and safety in food quality, and animal welfare. Environmental care products have led to standards imposed on these items, and aid is conditional on compliance with these rules. The depopulation of rural areas leads to several risks, including the loss of agricultural landscapes of high cultural value and environmental degradation. For this reason, the policy of rural development is intensified. c) The Spanish regions have been affected by the CAP, with an impact on areas with overproduction that are uncompetitive in the EU, such as the Cantabrian area. The beneficiaries include the Mediterranean coast and Andalusia.
Agricultural Uses of the Countryside
They are mainly agricultural, livestock, and forestry. The area occupied by these uses in Spain is divided between crop land, which tends to decrease (34.78%), natural grass pastures, which are stable (13.81%), and forest land, which has increased (34.41%). The percentage occupied by other surfaces grows due to the introduction of non-agricultural uses in rural areas and the extension of protected natural spaces. The contribution of each use to the final agricultural production (PFA) has evolved from a clear predominance of plant production over animal production, located between 60-65% and 40-35%. There are annual variations due to meteorological circumstances and contrasts between autonomous communities.
Farming
It was based on polyculture using backward techniques and extensive cultivation systems that caused low yields. As a result, production was oriented to consumption or the sale of surpluses on the domestic market. But now, the structure has enabled an increase in production and yields and gears production to the sale in the market.
The Agricultural Structure and Subsequent Recent Changes
a) Agriculture tends to specialize in products of each region. b) Cultivation incorporates modern techniques: selected seeds and genetically modified (GM) crops are used (genetically modified plants subjected to altered genes or receiving genes from other organisms to give them certain properties and increase performance), consumption of fertilizers, especially pesticides, and irrigation. The use of machinery, tractors, and harvesters is reaching acceptable levels, although part of it is aged and under-utilized given the small size of holdings and the limited extent of public use through cooperatives or service companies. Now, its renewal is being promoted by more effective, safe, and ecological machines. Various techniques are used to overcome natural conditions. Padding covers the growing band with plastic greenhouses and fixed structures in plastic or glass to create a warm and humid microclimate that helps to anticipate and have multiple crops per year. Sanding prepares the ground with a layer of manure that is retained and returns little by little, acting as fertilizer for the plants. Hydroponics plants the roots in sand or gravel and feeds them with inorganic salts used for growing flowers. c) Intensive farming gains weight over extensive farming. Fallow is a farming practice where the earth is left to rest for a variable period. The field is plowed to better capture rainwater and eliminate weeds, which serve as soil fertilizer, enabling the recovery of soil fertility. The fallow area in Spain has fallen due to widespread tillage or seeding during the rest period, reducing the spring crop planting of short-cycle crops that are collected before summer. This contributes to reducing the use of fertilizers and the extension of irrigation. Fallow is used to reduce agricultural production in affected areas. Irrigation is an agricultural practice that provides additional water to crops beyond that provided by precipitation, derived from underground or surface waters. Various systems are used, such as sprinkler irrigation, gravity irrigation, and drip irrigation. Intensive farming outdoors or in greenhouses yields several harvests a year, especially early and extra-early harvests. Fruits and vegetables, and in some cases, tropical crops, are dedicated to this. Irrigation provides extensive harvests at the same time as neighboring upland crops. Identical crops are dedicated to these, although with superior performance to industrial crops and forage. The irrigated area has increased due to large state works: dams, canals, and diversions. The National Irrigation Plan envisages extending the irrigated area and creating social irrigation in deprived areas to prevent depopulation. The focus is on strengthening and improving irrigation by maintaining networks and using water-saving irrigation systems that consume less water from desalination and urban cleansing. In the Mediterranean coastline, intensive irrigation predominates, with both physical and human benefits. Inside the peninsula, extensive irrigation is stressed, where water benefits are provided by the great rivers of the peninsula, mechanization allows cultivation, and there is a growing demand for cereals, feed, and certain industrial products. The advantages of intensive irrigated land are especially economic, stabilizing and increasing production yields and the incomes of farmers and the country. In the social field, it improves the standard of living, and the demand for services and welfare of the population has increased. Demographically, it helps to set the population and break the trend of emigration, causing immigration to work in these activities, industrial processing, production methods, and irrigation maintenance services. In the cultural field, it improves technical and professional preparation. The problems are the over-exploitation of surface and groundwater, the wasteful use of water in gravity irrigation systems, conflicts over water use with urban, industrial, and tourist demand, and environmental disturbances related to increased fertilizer consumption and plastic structures in greenhouses, which cause unsightly landscape modification.
Agricultural Production and its Recent Changes
It contributes between 60 and 65% of Spanish final agricultural production. Some communities exceed this percentage. The changes are due to the need to compete in the global and European market and the requirements of the CAP. This has imposed certain production quotas on surplus crops in the EU and introduced a system of aid detached from production; only in some cases does it keep aid to avoid crop abandonment.
a) Cereals are arable crops intended for human consumption, and increasingly for cattle feed and the processing of compound feed. Their growing area is mostly in the drylands of the peninsular interior, where they rotate with fallow or legumes. Exceptions are corn and rice, which are demanding in water; in Spain, they are located in wetlands and swamps. Production faces higher yields in other European countries. The CAP contributes to taxing production and reducing the subsidy for the cultivated surface. b) Legumes are arable crops intended for human consumption in green or dry form or for livestock feed. Their acreage coincides with that of cereals, with which they rotate, or they are used for rest or semi-fallow, as their roots attach to the land. Production faces difficulties in mechanization and low yields. The CAP reform disclaims aid to lentils and chickpeas and 100% to other legumes. c) The vine is a rainfed shrub crop that produces grapes for fresh consumption and wine processing. Its main producing area is Castilla la Mancha. There are other less extensive areas but with good markets in La Rioja and Rivera del Duero. Production is characterized by low yields because the vines occupy marginal areas unsuitable for other crops. They are grown thanks to technical improvements, including localized irrigation, and the promotion of national and international markets where they face competition from beer and alcohol-free drinks. The CAP attempts to reduce surpluses by implementing quotas, subsidies, and the dedication of part of the surplus to distillation or grape juice processing. Old and poor-quality strains are being replaced by others with more market demand. d) The olive tree is a crop resistant to very dry summers. Part of the olive harvest is dedicated to table olives, and the rest to oil production. The main producing area is the Andalusian countryside, especially Jaén, which accounts for a quarter of the total, and Córdoba. Production is variable, as the olive tree is alternate-bearing, with good and bad harvests. It has increased because of European subsidies and technical enhancements: fertilizers, pest control, and drip irrigation. Oil production is the largest in the world, representing 40% of the world total. It faces problems such as high oil prices due to the low level of mechanization and competition from cheaper oils. These are being alleviated by encouraging high-quality production, such as virgin oil. The CAP maintains production quotas and mostly disclaims aid from production. e) Horticultural crops are intended for fresh consumption or the canning industry. Their main producing areas are irrigated areas, and secondarily, wet peninsular and island areas and some dryland areas of dry Spain. Vegetables are grown outdoors or in greenhouses in irrigated areas of the Mediterranean coast and those located in urban consumption centers. Fruits are located in coastal areas and irrigated inland valleys of the peninsula: citrus in Valencia and Andalusia, stone fruits on the Mediterranean coast, pome fruits in Asturias, Lleida, and Barcelona, and bananas in the Canary Islands. Production traditionally grew for subsistence but has increased with the standard of living. Much is exported, contributing substantially to the trade balance, although there is increased competition from cheaper third countries. The CAP limits protection to these products to offset their withdrawal from the market to avoid a price fall. f) Industrial crops are intended for processing, such as sunflower used in the manufacture of oils, oil cakes for livestock, and biodiesel, as well as sugar beet and cotton for fabrics. The producing areas are irrigated in the southern half of the peninsula, except for sugar beet, which is in the Douro Valley. Production is closely related to industries, which sometimes provide seeds, instruct, supervise, and hire production. The CAP contributes to taxing and encourages alternative outlets for some unrelated products, such as tobacco, for which aid was earmarked for rural development. g) Forage crops are intended for animal feed (alfalfa, fodder corn, vetch). Their cultivation area is concentrated in the northern half of the peninsula in drylands due to its humid climate and extensive irrigation. Production has grown in parallel to the increase in farming and the demand for livestock feed. The CAP has untied aid from production.
The Livestock Business
A9 tends to specialize in livestock production d meat or milk. A course substitution d selected foreign national races and almost disappearance d d amplitude mixed breeds. It is some recovery d ls subvencines races to autóctonasgracias obtained for this purpose. B) progressively increases employment l cn technification milking machines and the study dl scientific feeding livestock, increased herd size d and no heads d ls x herd has high yields. c) extensive livestock gain weight on the extended .- dl intensive farming depends and feeds the physical environment to the tooth d natural grassland or in the wet Spain d ls ls peneplains pastures and stubble. Indigenous breeds is associated with technical and tradicionals work. Evolves to a mixed and intensive livestock .- intensive farming or industrial dl unrelated to the physical environment found partially housed and fed in selocaliza feed d ls ls near urban consumption centers in the northeast i peninsular Mediterranean coastline and especially for poultry pig dl This selects foreign breeds used modern techniques forage i dl i depends whose compound feed prices climbed an
Livestock production i ss Recent changes
To increase agricultural production in Spanish to stand at 35%. Some communities beyond this standard. The causes have been dl increase mechanization field q dl free time, soil conservation through the cultivation dl d dl fodder and increased life at d reqiere improve nutrition by incorporating protein in meat, milk, i egg. The transformations s due to the needs of competing in the market demands q d the CAP imposes quotas on certain production aids d ls dissociates production in certain sectors and determines compliance d ls d standards food safety, animal welfare and caring environment increase costs q d production .. a) is engaged in cattle production d meat and milk. Its location depends amplitude i dl dl cattle dominated regime in extensive dairy cows to produce calves in northern peninsular, the pastures o0ccidentales intensive regimen bait d calves near urban areas p0roductoras d i forage Aragon, Castile and Leon, Catalonia.Dairy Cattle d attitude is in extensive or mixed in the north of the peninsula where a and natural pastures in Andalusia taking advantage of large farms d ls fodder regadioy6 Intensively in the environment d ls dl cities where market proximity offset the cost to production. Meat production is facing competition from pork + i ave cheap. Milk production is hampered by competition has q + cheap prices. The CAP maintains support for 100% ls production in dairy cows and calves slaughter d i decouple sacrifice d 605 for adult animals. Milk surpluses led to an abandonment impose quotas encourage activity d 100% i untie aid d d milk production. As a result part dl industry has converted to beef cattle resulting cn d decreased milk production. b) The sheep farming in upland interior of the peninsula where dl is operated in 2 schemes. The predominant extended regimen includes seasonal transhumance or moving cattle between pastures d dL i winter summer are in decline due to the scarcity d d shepherds and grazing livestock on stubble and fallow fields organized in the order pa .. bait intensive regime d milking sheep i cn little significance is increased .. The production is based on d meats high hardy native breeds. D milk production has increased inroducion d cn and favored foreign breeds x high prices and high demand for the development d Quessada. The CAP subsidies granted extensive sheep to avoid abandoning this activity q d 50% d disclaims production. c) pig farming is dedicated to eating fresh d ia making sausages. Its location depends dl livestock system. Based on the extensive pig native d raxzas quality is found in meadows d ls Extremadura, Zamora, Salamancay Andalusia. The intensive pig production predominates in Catalonia and Murcia adopting the system integration conjunction d d q a company provides the raw material and pienss i ls q contributes a cattle barn and work. Production d d pork meat grown thanks to increased demand d faces the problem of surplus d d world and European meat. The CAP does not grant aid to this sector or minimum prices only export aid if necessary. D) The breeding poultry production is destined d meat and eggs. Its location in intensive regimes and under the d system integration centers i Castilla y Leon Catalonia Aragon. The scheme cn extensive indoor and free access lower density d birds is reduced. D The production of chicken meat consumption is lower import demands in egg production change allows exporting. The CAP provides aid to export meat and eggs i d withdrawal chicken meat d dl l market to avoid price fall dl
Forestry
Spain occupies 18.8% million acres 45% d sn timber. The sn hardwood species (beech, oak, chestnut, poplar, eucalyptus) and coníferas8pino resinero, Aleppo). The destination is the sawmill wood d for use in construction industries ls d furniture and pulping d paper. It is exploited for resin solvents and insulating cork stoppers and this is also encouraging the use of mushrooms and fungi. The main producing areas sn ls dl northern peninsular provinces i ls de Soria (pine) and Huelva (eucalyptus). The increased wood production d x the expansion of fast growing species. You still need to import almost 25% of timber consumed in cold or tropical areas. They are the production of excess resin and cork d Spain is the second world producer aunq face competition from synthetic substitutes. The CAP Spanish forestry plan i ls promote reforestation and forestry forestry dedication of excess d ls land agriculture. Its aim is to increase timber prduccion d i encourage other uses such as ls recreational Bosq dl i dl soil environmental protection and absorption of CO2.
AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF SPAIN
Bdl d are combining natural physical factors cn the agrarian act8ividad performed on the human factors.
The agricultural landscape north of the peninsula wet dl