Understanding Key Agricultural Terms and Land Uses
Key Agricultural Terms Defined
Estates: Large farms characterized by insufficient use of available resources.
Smallholder: Small rural property with an area sufficient to disable a farm.
Intensive Agriculture: Agricultural production system with a media-intensive horticultural production (Mediterranean).
Extensive Agriculture: Farm-based on a large amount of land, low labor, and low yields (Interior).
Primary Sector Activities: Activities related to procurement and production (agriculture, livestock, and fisheries).
Extensive Range: Large tracts of land cultivated and dedicated to livestock growth (Asturias).
Intensive Range: Located next to large livestock cities. Winter in stables and summer outdoors.
Fallow: Land not cultivated for one or more cycles to retrieve and store vegetative matter.
Dehesa: Semi-natural grassland understood as large areas of poor soils in central, western, and southeastern mainland.
Monoculture: Large area with plantations of trees or other plants of a single species, causing soil wear.
Industrial Crops: Complex and large groups of plants grown for specific uses, such as food, snuff, and cotton.
Dry Land Agriculture: Agriculture where man does not contribute water but uses only rainfall.
Partnership: A contract between landowners and cultivators for the products or benefits.
Height Fishing: Fishing that takes place at sea.
Inshore Fishing: Fishing using small boats in the vicinity of the coast.
Waters: Sea area belonging to a country.
Aquaculture: A set of activities, techniques, and growing knowledge of aquatic species, plants, and animals.
Agricultural Land Uses and Regional Analysis
Agricultural Land Uses:
a) Provinces with balanced input for agriculture and livestock: León, Zamora, Salamanca, Ávila, Soria, Zaragoza, Huesca, Teruel, Guadalajara, Toledo, and Badajoz.
b) Relationships between land uses and natural constraints in Spain: Physical constraints such as climate, topography, and rocky terrain, as well as human conditions, influence agricultural practices. Provinces are predominantly agricultural throughout the country, requiring specific altitudes and climates for optimal growth. Some species thrive in fertile soils with minimal erosion.
c) Common elements in landscapes with significant agricultural and livestock production: Areas with important farms are characterized by the use of fallow and irrigated areas. The most widely used livestock includes cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep.
Regional Agricultural Practices
Another Practice:
a) Provinces in Wet Spain: Parts of Ourense, Lugo, Pontevedra, A Coruña, Asturias, Santander, parts of León and Palencia, parts of Rioja and Navarra, and parts of Huesca.
b) Relationship between natural conditions and agricultural production in the interior of the peninsula: The rural landscape of the interior peninsula corresponds to a continental Mediterranean climate with hot summers, mild to cold winters, low to moderate rainfall, and a high thermal amplitude due to isolation from the sea’s influence. The relief features limestone and clay soil. This area is known for the Mediterranean trilogy: cereals, vines, and olives.