The recent recovery of a traditional crop: the case of rice in the Ebro Delta

Abstract

This article is a resumé of the authors' Tesis de licentiatura presented at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in December 1983, and entitled The évolution of agriculture in the Baix Ebre and Montsià regions seen through cultivation changes. 1970-1980. Undoubtedly, it is in the cultivation sector that the most significant changes have occurred. The most remarkable phenomenon which occurred during the decade studied was the considerable increase in the area under rice cultivation, which was the original crop involved in the agricultural colonization of the delta, and which had suffered considerable reductions in the 1960s, and its substitution by other crops of greater economic value such as cereals, fodder-crops and horticultural products which promised higher economic returns.

During the following decade (1970-1980) a series of factors combined to favour a reorientation of existing trends. Firstly, the costs of rice production were reduced considerably through mechanization, coinciding with a reasonably favourable commercial evolution. Secondly, increasing salinity in large extensions of delta soils has made rice the only viable crop, whilst hydraulic improvement schemes advance at the present low rate. The expansion of rice cultivation has spread to land newly-drained for agricultural purposes as well as areas formerly under other crops. The greatest losses have been in cereals and fodder-crops, whilst the area under horticultural crops have become the characteristic delta products.

The relative dedication to these two products depends by and large on the size of holdings. Horticultural crops predominate on smallholdings, as profits are higher although the risks involved are greater, whereas on medium and large-sized holdings, rice is the principal crop, providing much lower profits per areal unit but assured annual returns.