Rural Spain: Economic Challenges, Development, and Sustainability
Recent Dynamics of Rural Areas
The transformations and progress experienced by agricultural activities have not affected all Spanish countryside areas equally.
- Some districts have shown minor adaptation to change while maintaining low domestic yields. These areas, termed “rural backwaters,” exemplify the so-called crisis in the countryside.
- Other counties have adapted and specialized in competitive, high-yield production integrated into the market economy.
Considering these problems, it is necessary to discuss the “rural crisis.”
Rural Crisis
The rural crisis manifests itself in various indicators:
- The decline of the workforce employed in the sector.
- The reduction of agriculture’s relative contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). However, the agricultural contribution to GDP has increased in absolute terms due to increased yields.
- Reduced agricultural participation in foreign trade relative to the other two sectors. The agricultural trade balance was in deficit between 1970 and 1995 due to increased food demand related to rising living standards, imports of tropical timber, and the deficit. Since 1995, a surplus has been restored.
Problems of the Countryside
The problems are:
a) Demographic Problems
- The decline and aging of the rural population due to youth migration to cities.
- The low skills of the workforce.
b) Economic Problems
- Limited economic diversification of rural areas, with over-reliance on agricultural activities. This applies particularly to areas where large properties are dominated by agricultural laborers.
- Farming must adapt to changes in food demand and dietary habits.
- Growing dependence on the market and industry, both in supply and in selling products to factories.
- The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) requires increasing agricultural modernization and competitiveness to increase yields, despite production restrictions and falling prices.
c) Infrastructure Problems and Quality of Life
Many areas have accessibility problems, deficiencies in infrastructure and basic services, and low allocations of public amenities, resulting in a lower quality of life.
d) Environmental Problems
Farming contributes to environmental degradation:
- Vegetation is degraded by deforestation and extensive plowing or burning.
- Soil deteriorates due to overexploitation, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers.
- Surface water and aquifers suffer from overexploitation and pollution from chemicals and direct discharges of livestock slurry into rivers.
Rural Planning
Resolution of land problems through rural planning and land management policies.
Actors involved are the EU, regional governments, and local administrations.
- The EU provides structural funds for poorer farming regions. The goal is to retain farmers, improve farms, diversify activities, and create infrastructure. The LEADER program funds aid to areas most adversely affected by the CAP, subsidizing innovative activities aimed at rural tourism.
- Autonomous communities have land management skills.
- Local governments manage their municipal countryside and promote measures to increase local potential and improve the quality of life.
The main lines of action:
a) Economic Development
Retention of the rural population depends primarily on jobs and improved economic prospects. Initiatives have been carried out aimed at diversification of activities, modernization, quality improvement, and promotion of cooperatives.
- Diversification of economic activity, promoting industrial transformation of production and rural tourism.
- Industrial or agro-food processing of products in rural areas can increase their added value.
- Rural tourism has various forms: agrotourism, children’s and youth tourism, ecological tourism, health tourism, cultural tourism, and provisioning. It has a positive effect by increasing income, improving infrastructure and public amenities, and encouraging housing rehabilitation.
- Modernization and increasing production quality, resulting in the introduction of measures such as appellations of origin and quality designations, meeting demand levels in agricultural production.
- Promotion of cooperatives to avoid excessive dependence on the market and industry.
b) Improvement of Infrastructure, Community Facilities, and Quality of Life
It is necessary to improve accessibility, providing basic infrastructure and public amenities so that no one is too far from essential services.
Small urban centers in scattered rural areas play a vital role as population concentration centers, community facilities, and hubs for industrial and tertiary activities, offering employment opportunities.
c) Environmental Sustainability
- The EU’s rural development policy supports measures for environmental preservation, land dedication for forestry, extensification of cultivation, and maintenance of traditional activities.
- Organic farming uses natural systems, avoiding chemicals. Crops come from soils decontaminated for two years, fertilized with organic fertilizer, and employ crop rotation to prevent soil depletion. Advantages include healthier products and no water pollution, although shorter shelf life and higher prices due to limited demand can be disadvantages.
Food fraud and concerns about GMO foods are promoting organic farming, currently the fastest-growing agricultural sector in the EU. In Spain, its production has increased sixfold since 1991, and it is becoming a principal source of exploitation.