THE CLIMATE AND THE CROPS

THE NEED OF PLANTS

Agricultural landscapes are the result of a continuous interaction over time of, on the one hand, the supply of the natural environment, and on the other, the human action that corrects and amends. Soil and climate, natural factors, offer certain possibilities for the implementation of a number of crops that constitute a farming region.

Human action, of greater or lesser intensity, will broaden the natural offer of the land and fosters support for the care of crops, the implementation of which, in natural conditions, would have had little success.
The natural environment of the agricultural garden, especially with regard to moisture, it is not exceedingly suitable for the accommodation of large numbers of crops because the unsatisfied water needs exceed by far those that our environment offers. The Mediterranean climate, in contrast to the Atlantic, does not allow for the production of significant amounts of biomass, and irrigation resources are essential in order to alleviate moistur shortcomings. Such that, in natural conditions, our spaces would only just be enough to allow for a normal production of a sparse array of plants: the almond, the fig, carob trees, olive trees, a few types of wheat, and some legumes, such as the fava. This cycle of cultivation is only possible by the grace of the highest annual rainfall.
Another natural factor of climate, temperature, does not act, except in some extreme exceptions, as a limiting factor to the introduction of crops. However, some of the currently existing ones, especially those of American origin, can in certain situations experience cold weather damage to a certain degree. To resolve these difficulties, the farmer has employed a series of ameliorating measures, over time, using certain techniques, such as trellises, hot beds of manure, mulch, or some more modern, such as plastic wrapping, microtúnels, etc. All this, plus the optimal adjustment of crop cycle to the predicted climate, has enabled them to minimize their losses.
Soil with clay, silt, and sand in areas close to the ditches allows the presence of an overwhelming abundance of crops. Only those for whom it is necessary, in order to utilize their underground components — groundnuts, potatoes, turnips, etc. —, for a better penetration into the soil, need to be modified, in such a way that results of the input of sand from our coastline, has been and still is today, the solution. The basic PH of our soils has not been generally been a limiting factor, and its incidence has been overcome with the use of certain cultivar varieties that are better adapted to this condition.

 

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THE "SÉQUIA" ACROSS THE TIME

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
(Al-Andalus) [711-1238]

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
(Kingdom of València) [1239-1453]

MODERN PERIOD [1454-1789]

CONTEMPORARY PERIOD [1790-2012]

Fundació Assut

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© 2013 Fundació Assut