Alberto González Remuiñán

Focusing on Iberian rye, we explain how social opinion about crops can influence botanical scholars’ studies and breeding engineers’ research. Rye was an essential plant in some agricultural systems of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries because of its resistance. However, despite rye’s superiority over other cereals in adverse environments, its inferior position compared to wheat regarding food preferences helps to explain a lower consumption and an overall adverse social reputation. The early botanical investigation that formed the basis of later scientific research reflected this appreciation. Thus, with such weak foundations, given the lack of interest, when Iberian rye engineering began to develop in the 20th century, it looked abroad to find varieties of agronomic interest, barely studying native landraces. Analysing this phenomenon is a significant step towards drawing attention to a multifunctional plant adapted to the territory, which can offer solutions to present food and environmental challenges.

Meeting the water requirements for crops such as maize through irrigation can conflict with the increasing demand for efficient water management. This paper aims to contribute to the search for solutions to achieve a more rational water use for this crop in the Iberian Peninsula. It analyses written sources and unpublished oral testimonies to highlight the value of peasant and scientific knowledge in managing water resources through farming techniques other than irrigation used before the Green Revolution. However, the logic of productivity led to the introduction of hybrids and greater water availability through the construction of irrigation infrastructures. As a result, some of these techniques fell into oblivion, thereby losing this administrative aspect of moisture. In the current environmental context, reconsidering them is both logical and necessary.

En 1817, la aprobación de la reforma de Hacienda impulsada por Martín de Garay implantó un sistema tributario que tenía en la contribución general del reino su figura central. Un impuesto directo que gravaba esencialmente el ámbito rural y la renta agraria. Desde un punto de vista general, sus principales caracteres son bien conocidos, así como algunos de los obstáculos que afectaron a su desarrollo. Sin embargo, otros factores que contribuyen a explicar su evolución y su colapso final, abordables desde una perspectiva regional y local todavía poco desarrollada, han recibido menos atención. En este texto se trata de cubrir parte de esa laguna interpretativa a partir del uso de fuentes derivadas de la aplicación de la propia contribución en el noroeste español, concretamente en el área gallega. Su análisis revela importantes problemáticas con matices territoriales entre los que cabe destacar una serie de comportamientos sociales identificados como resistencia fiscal campesina.

Societal Impact Statement: Maize is the world's second most important agricultural crop. The cereal was unknown to Europeans before the end of the 15th century, but since its arrival in Europe, it has changed agriculture, food and landscapes. Terraces where maize was cultivated in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula contributed to the formation of local cultures and identities. The history of maize and maize landscape are mementos that help to recover traditional practices, fostering identities, and are crucial for the successful implementation of sustainable policies to provide prosperous futures.Summary: Maize (Zea mays L.) in the Iberian Peninsula embodies a history of landscape changes where the concepts of ‘exotic’, ‘traditional’ and ‘hybrid’ help to understand the engagements between landscape, farmers, agronomists (since the 19th and 20th centuries) and seeds. Today, landscapes reveal biophysical and ecological changes that reflect a panoply of intentions. A multitude of agents, and their interactions, acted upon those territories over time. Using historical sources from the leading institutions dedicated to agricultural research in the Iberian Peninsula, this paper aims to (1) contribute to a better understanding of the maize landscape and culture in the Iberian Peninsula and (2) interrogate how landscape changes (and the landscape history of maize) can frame local or regional heritage and identities reflecting customs or ways of life. The analysis unveils networks of knowledge, agricultural technologies and seed exchange. Politicians, economists, engineers, agronomists, farmers, governmental officials and agricultural industries planned and transformed traditional rural practices into modern and industrialised ones. Experts and politicians, willing to improve agricultural practices and seeds, using hybrid seeds or building new irrigation systems, led to deep social and landscape changes, allowing maize to cover territories far away from its traditional domains. Moreover, despite farmers' resistance, hybrid maize substituted landraces, eroding agrobiodiversity. Nowadays, the south and east regions of the Iberian Peninsula are the main producers of maize (hybrid), whereas in the Northwest maize is an occasional crop, being replaced by vineyards for economic reasons.