Characteristics of cropland: Western Andévalo

Editor's note 10Sep12: Source D111-2.6

Huelva is the most south-westerly province of Andalucia, Spain. It borders Portugal in the west and the province of Seville in the East. To the north lies the Extremadura, and to the south is the Atlantic Ocean. Huelva is one of the poorest provinces of Spain, with historically one of the highest unemployment rates. The capital, Huelva, is one of the oldest industrial towns in Spain. Most inhabitants of the province work in the tourist industry or the services sector. In the past, the main forms of employment were found in mining and agriculture.

The traditional cultivation of crops in Huelva province centred mainly on cereals, olives, vineyards and non-irrigated oranges. Near the coastal towns of Isla Cristina and Ayamonte, fig trees used to be cultivated. Over time, agriculture in the province has re-orientated towards new market demands which have resulted in new types of cultivation. In the 1960s, experimental cultivation of strawberries began near the city of Huelva. After the successful introduction of strawberries, production expanded to cover a maximum area of roughly 11000 ha but contracted to approximately 6500 ha in 2009 (EA MARM 2009). This type of agriculture relies on high levels of technological input and intensive production methods. All of the strawberry production area in the province is irrigated and plastics are used, either as ground cover or as greenhouses. In recent years, other similarly high intensity crops have been introduced, including raspberries, blueberries and oranges.

Traditional agriculture in the Western Andévalo is predominantly based on the use of the Dehesa. With the launch of official plans called “regadíos del Andévalo” (the irrigation of the Andevalo), intensive and irrigation-based technological agriculture is gaining ground in the region. Activities associated with the food processing industry are increasing significantly and include processing of Iberian Pork and horticultural products such as strawberries and oranges. The different types of cultivation in the Western Andévalo are shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. The different types of cultivation in Western Andévalo.  Source: (SIGPAC, created by author M. Curfs 2011)

The character of agriculture in western Andévalo can be divided into two main units; the old and traditional way of farming; and the new, highly mechanized and irrigated way of farming. The traditional way of farming occurs mostly on small farms. Here land is set aside for fallow, and the crops consist often of pastures and cereals for animal fodder. In general, these farms have low levels of production, a low rate of irrigation, and are often directly dependent on official support and subsidies (Marquez 2002).

The new way of farming consists in general of much larger farms. These farms can be described as intensive agriculture, highly mechanised and irrigated. During harvest periods there is a demand for temporary labour. The outputs of these farms are mainly aimed at the international market. Historically, the Andevalo area was characterised by small farms but this has started to change with the appearance of large commercial citrus groves (Marquez et al. 2002). Citrus production in the Western Andevalo is currently the main agricultural process impacting the environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects of this region.

Spain has long been Western Europe's leading producer, and the world's foremost exporter, of oranges and mandarins. In the early 1960s, the production of these commodities averaged 1.8 million tonnes a year, and by the 1980s the annual yield averaged about 3 million tonnes. Grapefruit, lemons and limes were also grown in quantity but Spain was second to Italy among West European producers of these fruits. Spain's citrus groves, all under irrigation, were concentrated in Mediterranean coastal provinces, the Levante, primarily in a narrow coastal strip 500 kilometres in length extending from the province of Castellon to the province of Almeria. Some citrus fruit production also was found in Andalusia (Solsten and Meditz 1988). The latest data released by the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) shows that Spain's total production of citrus fruit in 2008 was 6,383,882 tonnes (Arenas et al. 2011). In relation to orange production, the data from FAO shows that Spain holds the 6th position in the world and produced 2.62Mt of oranges in 2009.

The occupancy of citrus orchards in Andalusia has increased in recent years, from approximately 47,000 hectares in 2000 to 83,333 hectares in 2008 according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAP 2009). The Andalusian provinces with the largest areas of citrus are Seville with 28.234ha; and Huelva with 19,043 ha (Arenas et al. 2011). In Huelva province, 48.6 percent of the plantations are less than ten years old. This is evidenced by the estimations of an article from 1986, where it was measured that citrus plantations at that time occupied 3,223 ha in Huelva province.  Since 1986, the area under citrus production has increased some 16,000 ha and is still expanding as more areas are converted into citrus orchards.

From 1990 to 2006, approximately 35 percent of the Western Andévalo area has been converted into orange plantations. The speed with which the orange trees grow, and the speed of expansion, can be interpreted as intensification within extensification of agricultural practices. In 2003, the Andalusian government (Junta de Andalucia) approved an irrigation plan, the "Regadío del Andévalo" (irrigation of Andévalo). Rural landscapes have been selected to be developed into economically active plantations. Ten thousand hectares of marginal agricultural land will be irrigated in the Western Andévalo region, in Huelva province. The water will be delivered from the Andévalo dam, which is situated on the Chança river; a main tributary river in the lower Guadiana drainage area.

The landscape in Western Andévalo, prior to citrus conversion can be divided into two main divisions:

1. (agro)-silvopastoral with low tree density (1-40 trees/ha). The trees in this division consist predominantly of holm oak, with pasture and mattoral undergrowth.
2. Eucalyptus stands and Pine forests.

The geomorphology of the Western Andevalo can be described, as sloping land; a dissected low to medium level undulating to rolling landscape. The main soils in the area are: Leptosol; (Eutric) Regosol; and (Eutric) Cambisol. The soils in general are shallow, low in nutrients and organic matter and  formed on schists, shales and greywacks. On orange plantations, there is no appreciable soil formation other than anthropogenic soil, as it is completely (apart from parent material) created through human activity (Curfs 2009).

In the Western Andévalo almost all precipitation (an average of 500 mm/year) falls between November and March and is less than the rate of evapotranspiration (approx 900 mm/year), leading to an approximate aridity index of 0.55. The majority of water used for plantations is obtained from wells and by collecting surface runoff in man-made reservoirs, which alter the natural drainage patterns. The type of agriculture, coupled with tree density and the rate of growth, place heavy demands on already scarce water. Bare soil in between the trees has little refuge from the intensity of the sun, leading to high evaporation rates which results in the uneconomic use of water.

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