The wheat culture and soils degradation in the Guadiana left bank

Abstract

Cereal cropping in general and wheat in particular was for a long period, and still is, one of the most soil degrading agricultural activities in the Guadiana left river bank. Since early ages this area has been used for cereal cropping along a process of agricultural intensification and modernization. There, wheat is an evident degrading crop, that causes land degradation and depreciation of natural resources such as soil and water, dramatically increasing soil erosion and desertification. It is urgent to incentive the implementation of present EUCAP Agri-environmental measures, aiming at soil and water conservation, and in promoting new agricultural and non-agricultural land uses that consider the preservation and regeneration of natural shrub vegetation and Quercus forest, and the quality of the environment in a rural development approach.