“…After the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1986, several striking changes in the Spanish agricultural sector took place. Integration of European markets proved huge opportunities including olives, water-demanding crops, such as fruit trees, and horticulture, while discouraging the production of traditional, rainfed crops, such as potatoes, cereals and fodder crops (Cazcarro et al, 2015). These factors have enabled the reallocation of agricultural production from the humid north to the (semi-)arid south of Spain between 1930(Cazcarro et al, 2015Alonso-Sarría et al, 2016).…”
Land degradation affects natural and cultivated socio-ecosystems worldwide. Soil erosion is one of the main processes leading to land degradation, and the process is accelerated by human actions. Spain is dealing with extensive land degradation caused by land use and land cover change (LULCC), for instance by land abandonment, and local geo-ecological conditions. Recent land abandonment in Spain can be largely related to changing policies and international market development, which have resulted in the reallocation of agriculture and a shift from traditional rainfed crops to intensification of irrigated agriculture. This radical change in LULCC by land abandonment resulted in two opposite trends, towards greening-up and towards land degradation, each with enormous consequences for the environment by its effects on soil hydrology, runoff, sediment sources, soil erosion, fluvial channel adjustments and forest fire risks. To mitigate negative effects, appropriate management and conservation strategies are necessary.In this review, we analyze the top-down policy framework of soil conservation in Spain, with a specific focus on the Region of Murcia. We found that multiple international policies, i.e. the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the European Water Framework Directive and the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), contribute to soil and water conservation at the national level, where the national administration selects most appropriate measures according to the country's current state. These measures are incorporated in national policies, such as the National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and the National Rural Development Programme. In case of the CAP, agro-environmental subsidies are an instrument to promote soil protection at a national level. Regionally adjusted sub-measures, based on regional environmental characteristics, are then integrated in the Regional Rural Development Programmes of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. The application of subsidies, related to soil protection, is found to be controversial, as studies do not agree upon its effect on soil erosion and land degradation control. To improve decision-making, concepts such as the ecosystem service approach and nature-based solutions are suggested to be included in future policies, as these concepts aim to improve the status of the entire ecosystem in a more holistic manner than is currently the case.
“…After the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1986, several striking changes in the Spanish agricultural sector took place. Integration of European markets proved huge opportunities including olives, water-demanding crops, such as fruit trees, and horticulture, while discouraging the production of traditional, rainfed crops, such as potatoes, cereals and fodder crops (Cazcarro et al, 2015). These factors have enabled the reallocation of agricultural production from the humid north to the (semi-)arid south of Spain between 1930(Cazcarro et al, 2015Alonso-Sarría et al, 2016).…”
Land degradation affects natural and cultivated socio-ecosystems worldwide. Soil erosion is one of the main processes leading to land degradation, and the process is accelerated by human actions. Spain is dealing with extensive land degradation caused by land use and land cover change (LULCC), for instance by land abandonment, and local geo-ecological conditions. Recent land abandonment in Spain can be largely related to changing policies and international market development, which have resulted in the reallocation of agriculture and a shift from traditional rainfed crops to intensification of irrigated agriculture. This radical change in LULCC by land abandonment resulted in two opposite trends, towards greening-up and towards land degradation, each with enormous consequences for the environment by its effects on soil hydrology, runoff, sediment sources, soil erosion, fluvial channel adjustments and forest fire risks. To mitigate negative effects, appropriate management and conservation strategies are necessary.In this review, we analyze the top-down policy framework of soil conservation in Spain, with a specific focus on the Region of Murcia. We found that multiple international policies, i.e. the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the European Water Framework Directive and the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), contribute to soil and water conservation at the national level, where the national administration selects most appropriate measures according to the country's current state. These measures are incorporated in national policies, such as the National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and the National Rural Development Programme. In case of the CAP, agro-environmental subsidies are an instrument to promote soil protection at a national level. Regionally adjusted sub-measures, based on regional environmental characteristics, are then integrated in the Regional Rural Development Programmes of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. The application of subsidies, related to soil protection, is found to be controversial, as studies do not agree upon its effect on soil erosion and land degradation control. To improve decision-making, concepts such as the ecosystem service approach and nature-based solutions are suggested to be included in future policies, as these concepts aim to improve the status of the entire ecosystem in a more holistic manner than is currently the case.
“…The expansion of irrigation surfaces played a major part thanks to the construction of large hydraulic infrastructures. According to Cazcarro et al (2014), two-thirds of Spanish agricultural production was obtained from irrigated lands. Changes in the agricultural policy encouraged the growth of livestock, leading to an increase in its share of final agricultural production, eventually reaching one-third of total production (Clar et al 2016, 190).…”
Section: Traditional Historiographical Narrative Of Agricultural Tranmentioning
In this chapter, we review the animal and vegetal biomass flows of Spanish agroecosystems based on the evolution of net primary productivity, its different components and livestock production. This enables us to examine the performance of biophysical, land and livestock fund elements as well as the changes that took place throughout the twentieth century to meet society's biomass requirements. As explained in the introduction, our analysis moves away from the standard narrative on Spain's agricultural sector and its contribution to economic growth. A historiographic review of the main transformations in Spanish agriculture since 1900s was, however, presented in the first section of this chapter. Based on both traditional discourse and new historiographical contributions, we determine the milestones of change and then submit them to the discussion. The following sections aim at laying the foundations of an alternative narrative based on the study of Spanish agroecosystem productivity since 1900. The second section is dedicated to changes in types of land use since 1900 until now. We discuss whether Spain's evolution really did follow the so-called forest transition and its associated theory of productive intensification. We later analyze the NPP of agroecosystems, breaking it down into categories to verify whether production efforts affected their health. We then center on the domestic extraction entity over time and its progressive concentration in cultivated lands. Subsequently, we focus on these lands' specialization in specific Mediterranean crops oriented towards both national and international markets. Next, we turn our attention to livestock, a critical activity in recent decades, focusing first on its evolution before examining livestock production. To finish, we propose a holistic understanding of the biophysical implications of the sector's industrialization.
“…The analysis of the production increases over the 50‐year period after 1950 confirms this trend. More than two thirds of the increase in crop production experienced by the Spanish agriculture sector between 1955 and 2006 was due to the extension of irrigated land (Cazcarro, Duarte, Martín‐Retortillo, Pinilla, & Serrano, ). In the 25‐year period between 1955 and 1980, almost half of the total increase of Spain's crop production was due to irrigation.…”
Section: The Unique Features Of the Spanish Model Of Agrarian Changementioning
confidence: 99%
“…The percentage of irrigated crop production over total crop production in Spain, 1955–2006. Source : Cazcarro et al ().…”
Section: The Unique Features Of the Spanish Model Of Agrarian Changementioning
The aim of this study is to determine whether the Spanish path of agrarian change, between 1950 and 2005, exhibits some features important enough to differentiate it from the common model of developed countries in Western Europe. On the one hand, the Spanish agrarian transformations share the main features which took place in Western Europe: technological innovation, increased production and productivity, loss of importance of the agricultural sector, tight integration with the industrial sector and, finally its high impact on the environment. On the other hand, a series of important peculiarities can be observed in the Spanish agrarian change: strong expansion of intensive livestock farming; importance of increased irrigation to explain the transformation of agriculture; policies that offered very little support to the agricultural sector under a dictatorship that denied a voice to farmers; maintaining a very prominent role in the economy despite its small contribution to GDP.
Key-words:Agricultural change, European agriculture, Agricultural policies, European economic history
ResumenEl objetivo de este trabajo es comparar el modelo de cambio agrario español entre 1950 y 2005 con el predominante en los países europeos occidentales en el mismo periodo. Nuestras conclusiones ponen de relieve que ambos comparten las mismas características principales: innovación tecnológica, incremento de la producción y la productividad, pérdida de importancia relativa del sector agrario, fuerte integración con el sector industrial y alto impacto medioambiental. Sin embargo, el cambio agrario en España ha tenido una serie de peculiaridades destacadas, como son la fuerte expansión de la ganadería intensiva, la creciente importancia del regadío para explicar las transformaciones agrarias, unas políticas públicas que ofrecieron un escaso apoyo al sector agrario bajo una dictadura que impedía la participación de los agricultores en el diseño de las políticas agrarias y el mantenimiento de un papel destacado del sector a pesar de su pequeña contribución al producto interior bruto Palabras clave: Cambio agrario, agricultura europea, políticas agrarias, historia económica europea JEL CODES: N54, O13, Q18 1
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