Spanish Agriculture: An Overview of Practices and Policies

Spanish Agriculture

Types of Agriculture

Market Agriculture

Tupo agriculture focuses on producing a large surplus for sale. It achieves high yields and productivity through mechanization, seed selection, fertilizers, and pesticides, often using intensive land management.

Traditional/Subsistence Agriculture

This type of agriculture yields low output, primarily for family consumption. It's characterized by extensive land use, limited mechanization, and minimal use of modern techniques like seed selection or pesticides.

Sharecropping

In this lease arrangement, the farmer cultivates land they don't own, paying the owner a pre-agreed share of the harvest.

Lease

A type of ownership where the farmer doesn't own the land and pays the owner a monetary fee.

Livestock

Cattle

With around 5 million head, milk production is insufficient for domestic needs. Meat production has increased with new breeds and intensive livestock farming, predominantly in Spain's moist areas.

Goats

Spain has the largest goat population in Europe, around 3 million head. Goat farming focuses on cheese and meat production, concentrated in southeastern Spain.

Sheep

Around 24 million sheep are raised, mostly extensively, supplemented with grain feed. Meat and sheep milk production have recently increased.

Swine

Represented by 19 million head, indigenous breeds offer higher quality, especially for ham, despite lower yields. Intensive farming practices include selective breeding, pesticides, and artificial insemination.

Agricultural Practices and Policies

Land Concentration

A 1950s agricultural policy aimed at reducing the number of parcels within a farm, facilitating mechanization and saving time.

Agricultural Cooperatives

Farmer groups or associations involved in various stages, from production to marketing. These cooperatives cut costs, maximize profits, and often connect with products of designated origin, coexisting with multinational companies.

Sand Cultivation

A technique using a sand-fertile soil mixture to improve water infiltration and prevent evaporation, practiced in tomato and eagle cultivation in Mazarron.

Under-Plastic Cultivation

This technique increases crop yields by controlling temperature and humidity. Originating in the Mediterranean, it includes various types like greenhouses and padded fields in Cartagena.

Feedlot

Intensive livestock rearing where animals are confined to barns to maximize meat or milk production. It involves selective breeding, specialized feed, vitamins, and veterinary products to prevent disease.

Structural Funds

EU funding through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidizes farming. The European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) supports rural development, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aids underdeveloped regions, and the European Social Fund (ESF) addresses industrial unemployment.

General Agricultural Terms

Livestock Farming

The breeding of livestock, which can be extensive, intensive, or confined. Types of livestock include goats, sheep, cattle, and swine. It's the second largest subsector of Spain's primary sector.

Intensive/Extensive Farming

Intensive farming involves continuous land use and high yields (e.g., market gardens of Murcia), while extensive farming uses discontinuous land occupation and lower yields (e.g., cereal plains).

Latifundio

Large estates (over 100 hectares) often inefficiently exploited. Traditionally reliant on extensive systems and many laborers, they are now increasingly mechanized, particularly in Andalusia, Extremadura, and Castilla La Mancha.

Mechanization

The introduction of machines and tools in agriculture, increasing production and productivity while reducing the workforce, contributing to rural exodus.

Smallholder

Refers to small land ownership (below 10 hectares) or small parcel sizes. Minifundismo represents an extreme case of smallholdings, with microfunds being the smallest units.