Spanish Agriculture: CAP Impact, Rural Land Use & Modernization

Posted on Jan 7, 2025 in Geography

The CAP and Its Implications

The Spanish agricultural policy has been significantly shaped by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Its consequences include:

  1. A) Spain’s integration into the European common market, participating in its internal organization and engaging in extensive free trade among members. This includes Common Market Organizations for key products and a common tariff for imports from outside the EU. European free trade has opened a market of millions of consumers to Spanish products.
  2. B) Spain has faced challenges such as:
    • High prices of European products.
    • Surplus crops and livestock.
    • Consumer demands for health and safety.
    • Depopulation of many poor rural areas.
  3. C) The CAP has affected Spanish regions differently.

Rural Area Agricultural Uses

Rural areas in Spain are still largely used for agriculture, livestock, and forestry. Land use is divided among cropland (decreasing at 34%), natural meadows and pastures (stable at 13%), and forest land (increased to 34%). Other surfaces (16.9%) have increased due to non-agricultural uses and protected natural areas, with regional differences.

Agricultural Structure and Recent Changes

  1. A) Agriculture is specializing in the best products of each region.
  2. B) Modern techniques are being incorporated, including selected seeds and crops, pesticides and fertilizers, machinery, and various techniques to overcome natural limitations.
  3. C) Intensive farming is gaining importance over extended farming due to reduced fallow in dryland and irrigation expansion.

Techniques and Agricultural Systems

Agricultural techniques and systems have changed since the 1960s:

  1. A) Technical changes include mechanization, genetic selection of seeds and livestock, and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
  2. B) Changes in agricultural systems have led to increased production intensification and higher yields.

Agricultural Policy Since Mid-19th Century

From the mid-nineteenth century until the adoption of the CAP, Spanish policy focused on:

  1. A) Attempts to change the system of land ownership, though the confiscation of the nineteenth century did not alter the concentration of land in few hands.
  2. B) Addressing inadequate land ownership size through land consolidation policies and legislation on large farms. Land consolidation, initiated in 1952, was transferred to autonomous communities in 1985 and continues today. The law on large farms, started in the Franco regime, was modified in 1979.
  3. C) Trade protectionism, setting tariffs on agricultural products from abroad to avoid national competition.
  4. D) Increasing yields through technical improvements and irrigation expansion.