IRRIGATION IN SPAIN
Production impact
- Irrigation is one of the main actors in the Spanish agri-food system: it generates more than half of the final agricultural production, covering only 16% of the agricultural land used.
- The agri-food system comprises primary agricultural and livestock production, its transformation by the agri-food industry, the industry that manufactures its inputs and the companies that provide them with services, and transport and distribution activities of the products obtained.
- The Spanish agri-food system generates 8.9% of GDP, 13.8% of employment and 18.3% of the country’s exports.
- Its countercyclical behavior contributes decisively to sustaining the national economy during times of crisis.
- Its activity also contributes to the country’s territorial cohesion.
- Spain is the eighth largest exporter of agri-food products in the world in terms of value:
- World’s leading exporter of products such as olive oil, table olives, citrus fruits, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, melons, watermelons, strawberries.
- Second world exporter of products such as almonds, garlic.
- Third world exporter of products such as wine, pork, vegetables, alfalfa.
