David Soto Fernández

This work analyses in the long term (since the 18th century) the evolution of peasant fire management in Galicia (northeast Spain). Also, the emergence of forest fires as a consequence of the process of industrialization of agriculture and the breakdown of the agro-ecosystems in mosaic characteristic of peasant management. It is studied the functionality of the estivadas (shifting cultivation) in organic agriculture, its integration in the set of peasant management of the mountain. Attention is also paid to changes in the management of manure during the process of intensification of organic agriculture between 1750 and the 1930s. Finally, we study the rupture of peasant management forms first by the policies of the Franco dictatorship and then by the impact of the industrialization of agriculture. The links between the latter process and the emergence of fires as a recurring problem since the 1970s are analysed. Este trabajo analiza en el largo plazo (siglo XVIII a la actualidad) la evolución del manejo campesino del fuego en Galicia (noreste de España) y el surgimiento de los incendios forestales, como consecuencia del proceso de industrialización de la agricultura y de la ruptura de los agroecosistemas en mosaico propios del manejo campesino. Se estudia la funcionalidad de las estivadas (rozas) en la agricultura orgánica, su integración en el conjunto de manejos campesinos del monte. También se presta atención a los cambios en el manejo de las estivadas durante el proceso de intensificación de la agricultura orgánica entre 1750 y los años treinta del siglo XX. Por último, se estudia la ruptura de las formas de manejo campesino primero por las políticas de la dictadura franquista y después por el impacto de la industrialización de la agricultura. Se analizan los vínculos entre este último proceso y el surgimiento de los incendios como problema recurrente a partir de la década de 1970.

Book reviews - Crítica de libros - Crítica de livros (Historia Agraria, 88) Laurent Brassart, Corinne Marache, Juan Pan-Montojo, and Leen van Molle (Eds.): Making Politics in the European Countryside, 1780s-1930s. Jakub Beneš Malcolm Thick: William Ellis, Eighteenth-century farmer, journalist and entrepreneur. Susanna Wade-Martins Helena Kirchner y Flocel Sabaté (Eds.): Agricultural Landscapes of Al-Andalus, and the Aftermath of the Feudal Conquest. Iñaki Martín Viso Elizabeth Griffiths (edited by Jane Whittle): Managing for Posterity. The Norfolk Gentry and their Estates c. 1450-1700. Lluís Torró Gil Carmen Soliz: Fields of Revolution. Agrarian Reform and Rural State Formation in Bolivia, 1935-1964. José Peres-Cajias Carmen Sarasúa (Ed.): Salarios que la ciudad paga al campo. Las nodrizas de las inclusas en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Montserrat Carbonell Esteller Mònica Bosch Portell: Viure de renda. La gestió del patrimoni Carles, 1770-1860. Antònia Morey Francesco D’Amaro: Antipatriotas del agua. Conflictos y grupos de interés en el Franquismo. Francisco Cobo Romero Ximo Guillem-Llobat y Agustí Nieto-Galan (eds.): Tóxicos invisibles. La construcción de la ignorancia ambiental. David Soto Fernández

This article describes agricultural practices of fertilization in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula between 1750 and 1900, where a leguminous plant called gorse (Ulex Europaeus) was used as bedding for livestock in order to produce manure. During the period examined, this whole region experienced a process of agricultural intensification which resulted in a net loss of nutrients in the soil. Peasants dealt with the increasing nutrient requirements by adapting land and livestock management in order to produce more manure during the second half of the 20^th century. However, this was done at the expense of nutrient reserves in extensively managed areas, all of which resulted in an unsustainable agricultural pattern. Our data also suggest that the context of nutrient scarcity could be related to changes in the migration pattern, which started to be more intense after 1850 and preferred distant destinations (America), thus switching from seasonal to permanent stays.

The high grain yield of modern varieties (MV) respond to the increase in fossil-based inputs, and the widespread belief that they are more productive than old varieties (OV) is biased. This belief focuses only on marketable biomass, without considering the consequences on agroecosystem sustainability of the reductions in other portions of NPP. Additionally, field comparisons of OV and MV were normally conducted under industrialized farming conditions, which is detrimental for OV performance. Both trials carried out in this study comparing wheat OV and MV show that, under Mediterranean rainfed conditions and traditional organic management, aerial and belowground biomass production of OV is higher than that of MV, without significantly decreasing yield and enabling a better competition against weeds. From the data of our trials, bibliographic review and information from historical sources, we have reconstructed the NPP and destinations of biomass of Spanish wheat fields (1900–2000). Varietal replacement entailed the reduction in residues and unharvested biomass (UhB), which involved soil degradation in rainfed cereal fields and undermining heterotrophic trophic webs. Our results suggest that OV can increase the sustainability of rainfed Mediterranean agroecosystems at present through the improvement of soil quality, the reduction of herbicides use, and the recovery of biodiversity.

Guzmán, G. I., E. Aguilera, R. García-Ruiz, E. Torremocha, D. Soto-Fernández, J. Infante-Amate, and M. González de Molina. 2018. The agrarian metabolism as a tool for assessing agrarian sustainability, and its application to Spanish agriculture (1960-2008). Ecology and Society 23(1):2. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09773-230102