History of Spanish Agricultural Policy and Land Reform

19th and 20th Century Agricultural Policy

19th Century: Confiscations and expropriations of church lands were poorly executed, altering land distribution. 20th Century: The 1902 Gasset Plan doubled the existing irrigated area, impacting 250,000 families.

Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera

The irrigation policy and state protection measures yielded poor results due to the economic crisis and the inhibition of the landowning oligarchy.

Second Republic Land Reform (1932)

Objectives included redistributing land through the expropriation of large estates without compensation. However, the initiative failed to generate interest among farmers.

Francoist Era: Estate Politics

The National Colonization Institute (INC) was established in 1939. Objectives included creating new irrigated areas and settling populations on private farms. While irrigated land remained with original owners, colonists were settled on plots. Despite 60,000 settlers being established, the result was a significant rural exodus.

Smallholding Policies

Reparcelling (1952): Aimed to reduce the number of small, fragmented plots by concentrating them into larger properties. Consequences included a shift toward monoculture in rainfed areas and small farms in the North, leading to increased farm incomes but affecting the two Castiles.

Rural Planning and Price Regulation

• Rural Planning Law (1964): Encouraged agricultural cooperatives but saw little success.
• Agricultural Price Regulation (FORP, 1968): The government set prices to ensure farmer remuneration, though it primarily benefited large cereal-producing estates.

Infrastructure and Modern Legislation

IRIDA (1974): Focused on the promotion of agricultural infrastructure. Large Farm Legislation (1979): Established a manageable regime for large farms, focusing on improvement plans rather than expropriation.

Democracy and the CAP

Democratic Reforms: Included the generalization of Agricultural Insurance (1978), the Farm Bill (1979) requiring improvement projects to avoid forced leasing, and the 1984 Farm Market Bill to prevent depopulation.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): Upon Spain's entry into the European Community in 1986, the 1962 CAP was adopted. Objectives included reducing overproduction, managing imports, ensuring market stability, and implementing a common organization for agricultural markets and pricing.