The rural Galicia inherited at the end of the 19th century was characterised by a traditional agrarian economy, where polyculture, common woodland, land ownership and highly fragmented plots of land were typical. The first changes began to take place around the first third of the 20th century, when initiatives appeared to introduce technical improvements in production and to open markets abroad to sell surpluses (Fernández Prieto, 1992), at the same time as the long and complex process of redemption of foral property began to take shape (Villares, 1982). The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the subsequent management of resources by Franco's government, however, led to a re-ruralisation and paralysis of development (Lois, 2018) in the following decades. In the first period, centralist dynamics were directed towards the creation of reservoirs for the production of electricity, flooding extensive areas of crops. From the 1960s onwards, the creation of pig and poultry farms for the production of cheap meat was encouraged, accompanied by the importation of large quantities of corn and soya, and later (1980s), the intensification of cattle for milk and meat production, with the development of the dairy industry in particular. These developments led to a significant transformation of the landscape, in which polyculture was significantly reduced in favour of fields for pasture and fodder (Colino and Pérez Touriño, 1983; Lois, 2018), as well as the appearance of large areas of dammed water replacing fertile land. The forest, which until recently had supported the traditional agricultural system by providing food for livestock and natural fertiliser for the fertilisation of arable land, is no longer necessary for the production of the agricultural-livestock sector once industrial feed, chemical fertilisers and machinery are incorporated. After this decoupling, its use is directed towards the production of wood, although it is only used for initial processing - mainly pine and eucalyptus for boards and paper pulp - (Miramontes, 2011).
Over the last few decades, specific experiences have been consolidated in which production and marketing are moderated in favour of higher product quality, with practices that entail less pressure on the environment, rational use of resources and associative strategies that reduce dependence on external sources (Lois, 2018). The figures of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) defined by the European Union, as well as the regulations on Organic Agriculture, protect and underline the link between the product and the geographical area where it is produced, which together with the characteristics of the production method, gives them a special and differentiated characteristic.
5. 1. The wine landscape. Ribeiro.
The county of Ribeiro has experienced an irregular demographic trend since 1900, initially marked by a slight increase until the middle of the 20th century and a second phase of demographic decline leading to a 60% reduction in the number of inhabitants since 1950, as can be seen in Fig. 10, with the numerical scale on the second vertical and the uniform colour spot. By municipality (in the Fig. 10 with the scale on the first vertical and the values in individual lines), the differentiated behavior of the county seat compared to the rest of the population is clearly appreciated. In the first decades, the municipalities of the region experienced slight changes, some lost population (Arnoia, Beade and Leiro), others remained (Carballeda de Avia, Cortegada and Melón) and three grew slightly (Avión, Cenlle and Castrelo de Miño), while Ribadavia experienced a dynamic of sustained growth that remained until 1960. The second half of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st, showed a demographic decline in all the municipalities of Ribeiro, especially pronounced in the three that had grown in the first phase, Avión, Cenlle and Castrelo de Miño, and milder in the others. Arnoia, for example, counted 2,962 people in 1900, 2,129 in 1950 and 1,015 in 2022 and Ribadavia, with 4,788 in 1900, 7,369 in 1950 and 5,003 in 2018. In 1900 only 12.5% of the county’s population lived in the capital, by 2022 this percentage had increased to 32’2% of the total.
Wine production in this region has gone through various stages during this period, which have marked its economic development. Ribeiro was protected in Spain since 1932, as being included in the first Wine Statute Law along with 18 other wine regions, constituting the first Regulatory Council of Ribeiro in 1956. However, the evolution of wine in this area was not always positive and it underwent major crises. During the 19th century, various plagues forced the traditional vines to be replaced by others from America, which were more resistant, and the quality of the wines suffered, so that in the first decades of the 20th century Ribeiro was famous but of poor quality. What was sold as Ribeiro had little to do with the red wines praised by Cervantes or Calderón, which accompanied Columbus on his voyage to America or which fetched the highest prices when exported to England, Holland or the Philippines, before oidium affected the vineyards in the mid-19th century. In the mid-20th century, Ribeiro red wine began to have a reputation for being acidic and cloudy, promoting the specialisation of the region's production in white and toasted wine, the latter with a higher alcohol content (González Pérez, 1997). It was not until the last decades of the 20th century that some winegrowers recovered the traditional grape varieties of the area and began to produce high quality red wines, although along the way the vineyards were reduced by more than half, as was the number of producers. In fact, the lack of generational continuity of different wineries and their historical quality has led in recent years to the arrival in the area of wineries and companies from other wine-growing areas of Spain (Rioja, Ribera del Duero) that buy the vineyards and the exploitation rights.
Analysing this process in data, we find that the area of vineyards in the province of Ourense has been decreasing mainly throughout the second half of the 20th century. The data provided by the yearbook of 1889 recorded an area of 18,271 Ha. of unirrigated vineyards, with 7,150 vines per hectare. In 1922, the statistical advance of the agricultural production in Spain, shows for the province of Ourense an area of 16,850 Ha. of vineyards, with a production of 51,881,200 litres, valued at 25,188,322 pts. Four decades later, the 1962 agricultural census recorded a total of 15,632 Ha. of wine grapes, and the most recent census, in 2009, recorded only 3,817 Ha., of which 2,218 Ha. corresponded to quality wines.
In relation to the study area, the 1889 yearbook records 4,480 Ha. of vineyards in the Ribadavia judicial district, with 10,300 vines per hectare, making it the district that contributes most to the total area of the province, ahead of the judicial district of Orense, with 4,320 Ha. dedicated to vineyards and 9,300 vines per hectare. According to the statistical advance of agricultural production in Spain in 1922, Ribadavia is still the judicial district with the largest number of hectares of vineyards (5,180 ha) in the province, and produces 17,166,500 litres of must (5,380 kg/hectare). Within the Designation of Origin there are 1,374 hectares with an average production in recent years of 10 million kilos of grapes.
5. 2. The bread landscape. Carballiño.
The county of Carballiño shows a demographic evolution similar to that of Ribeiro. The first phase was one of relative stagnation, with an appreciable growth in the decade 1930–1940, perhaps more conditioned by the 1940 census, questioned by demographers, than by a real increase in population, to reach 1950 with practically the same population, 46,949 people in 1900 and 46,604 in 1950. From that decade onwards, the county's population gradually declined to 26,222 inhabitants in 2022 (Fig. 11 with numerical scale on the second vertical and the uniform colour spot). Individually, three different groups of municipalities can be distinguished: the smaller ones, Beariz, Piñor, Punxín and San Amaro, which remained practically stable in this first phase; the larger ones, Boborás, Irixo, Maside and San Cristovo de Cea, which lost population, but not significantly, and the county seat, Carballiño, which went from 8,447 inhabitants in 1900 to 9,841 in 1950. Since that year, only the latter population has shown a positive dynamic, with 13,932 inhabitants registered in 2022, while the rest of the municipalities have experienced major setbacks, both the smaller ones, Punxín, for example, from 2,100 in 1950 to 744 in 2022, and the larger ones, San Cristovo de Cea, from 6,043 in 1950 to 2,042 in 2022. In 1900 Carballiño accounted for 18% of the county's population, in 2022 more than half of the inhabitants of the whole county (53.1%) lived in this city.
During the 20th century in this region there has been a gradual transfer of population, functions and services from the villages to the municipal capitals and from these to the county capital, Carballiño. In this locality, the remittances of emigrants channelled by the Provincial Savings Bank, the development of the construction sector and the economic benefits of property speculation explain the rapid urban growth of this town, known at the end of the 20th century as the Galician little New York (Neo-Yorquiño) (Rodríguez, 1999), due to the height of the new residential buildings in contrast to the traditional houses. The concentration of building growth in Carballiño led to the development of other productive and service activities, both on the edge of the urban area, where industrial areas would later be created, and on the ground floor and commercial premises in the town centre. In any case, the growth of Carballiño took place at the expense of the emptying and abandonment of its region.
As for the other municipalities in the region, in recent years there have been various attempts by public administrations to recover traditional products through festivals and certification processes as a Protected Geographical Indication. Of all the examples, the most successful is undoubtedly that of Cea Bread (Pan de Cea). Centuries ago, there were once 12 pooled furnaces working in shifts to bake bread to meet local demand and the requirements of the Monastery of Oseira (Limia, 2007). Today, following the certification of the PGI in 2004, production has grown from 200,000 loaves a year to 700,000, with more than 50% of the production exported outside Galicia, distributed in large supermarkets and delicatessen shops in all the major cities of Spain, with some companies even recovering indigenous varieties of wheat to produce loaves of supreme quality.
The data to analyse the evolution of cereal production in the province of Ourense starts in 1922, with the statistical advance of agricultural production in Spain, which records a total area of 80,332 ha. dedicated to cereals and leguminous plants in the province of Ourense. The cultivation of rye stands out, to which 46,660 Ha. are devoted, with a production of 99,497,497 ha, The next most important crop is corn (25,110 Ha.), with a production of 99,497 Tn. of grain and a total value of 49,016,383 pts; and in third place is the cultivation of wheat (2,795 Ha.), producing 5,876 Tn. of grain with a valuation of 3,737,174 pts.
Decades later, the Agricultural Census of 1962 shows with its statistics a significant reduction in cereal production: rye, still known as "bread" in many villages, reduces its production considerably to 33,578 Ha., wheat reduces its surface area to 645 Ha. and corn, which is used to support livestock feed, reduces its surface area to 17,928 Ha.
More recently, the 2009 census marked for the province a much greater decline than the previous record regarding rye (2,992 ha) and corn (1,767 ha), although the cultivation of wheat (soft, durum and spikenard) increased its extent to 10,060 ha.
The most specific data for the Carballiño region show that the area devoted to cereal cultivation decreased from 518 Ha. in 2002 to 347 Ha. in 2018. On the other hand, the PGI Cea Bread, attached only to the area of the municipality of San Cristovo de Cea, recorded in 2020 a production of 423,205 kg of bread in its 15 certified furnaces, with a value of 1,058,012 €. It seems logical to assume that promoting the production of native varieties of wheat in these lands could provide a new boost to local development.
5. 3. The potato landscape. Limia.
The county population shows a different evolution compared to the other territories analysed. Limia recorded a relatively significant population growth in the first half of the twentieth century, from 35,539 people in 1900 to 44,496 in 1950, an increase of 25%. From 1950 onwards, the population fell, at first at a slow pace, until the decade 1981–1991, when there was a sharp drop of 26% in the number of inhabitants, related to the emigration of the young population of the region to European countries (mainly Switzerland, France and Germany). And again it continues to fall at a slow pace until the present day, registering a total of 19,518 inhabitants in 2022, of which the county seat, Xinzo de Limia, accounts for 49.2% of the total. By municipalities, the only one that shows, with ups and downs, a positive general dynamic is Xinzo de Limia, which in 1900 had 5,622 inhabitants and in 2022 9,611, having registered its historical maximum in 1970 with 10,640 inhabitants. The rest of the municipalities show a certain stagnation in the first decades of the 20th century, until in the central decades the number of inhabitants began to fall gradually and in 1981 the demographic crisis worsened drastically in all of them.
For centuries, Limia was one of the characteristic polyculture areas of inland Galicia, where cereals, vegetables, legumes and fruit trees were grown, the surrounding forests and woodlands were exploited and the natural meadows were used for grazing cattle, far from the cultivated fields. Although potato cultivation was experimented with in Galicia as early as the beginning of the 17th century, it did not begin to spread until the second half of the 18th century. The Ensenada Cadastre of 1752 mentions its residual cultivation in the province of Ourense, but it was not until a serious cereal production crisis occurred in 1768–1769 that its cultivation became popular among the peasantry with fewer resources. The potato, which would come to replace the chestnut as a staple food in the poorest households, becoming one of the most prominent features of the Galician agrarian landscape, was underestimated as a human food. It was basically grown to feed pigs and only at the beginning of the 19th century did it begin to be introduced into the regular diet of various European countries (Germany, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands) (García, 2013). In Limia and other agricultural areas of Galicia, such as Bergantiños in A Coruña, and Terra Chá and Lemos in Lugo, most of the land was devoted to cereal crops (wheat and rye), but potatoes became firmly established as a replacement crop in rotations (Bouhier, 1979). Thus, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, these four comarcas were distinguished by the quality of their production. Limia exported potatoes for consumption and seed potatoes to Portugal as early as 1935 and began to be a recognised territory for this type of crop, mainly using the 'Valencian' variant.
Following the drying up of the Antela Lagoon in 1958, potato cultivation spread in Limia, making it one of the largest production areas in Spain. The variant that became popular was the Kennebec, developed in 1948 by the United States Department of Agriculture, both for its culinary qualities and for its resistance to different pests and its high productivity, even in dry land. In 1988 the regions of Bergantiños in A Coruña and A Limia in Ourense applied to the regional government for the inclusion of these traditional cultivation areas in the “Galician Product Designation of Quality” seal, which was approved in April 1989, including the region of Terra Chá in Lugo. In September 1996 the regional government recognised the Specific Designation 'Galician Potato' and in October 2001 approved the Protected Geographical Indication regulations, extending the territory to the regions of Lemos and A Mariña in the province of Lugo. In 2002 it was ratified by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and in 2005 by the Official Journal of the European Union, being one of the first potato-growing areas to achieve the European quality designation. The last legislative modification took place in 2016, whereby the regional government approved the extension of the PGI Galician Potato to the entire regional territory and to the "agria" and "fina de Carballo" varieties.
The quality distinction has led to greater specialisation in the regional agricultural market and a certain amount of economic development, especially in the town of Xinzo de Limia. In 2020, a total of 2,862 hectares in Galicia were registered under the quality label, of which 2,341 hectares, 81.8% of the total, corresponded to the Limia county. In the 1995/1996 season, 1.5 tonnes of potatoes were marketed with the PGI seal, in the 1999/2000 season 3.8 tonnes, in 2013/2014 4.04 tonnes and in the 2019/2020 season, 7 tonnes.
5. 4. The chestnut landscape. Trives.
In the case of the mountainous county of Trives, the demographic decline is much greater, especially since the 1980s (Fig. 12). In 1900, the county had 15,403 inhabitants, well distributed throughout the territory, with three municipalities having approximately three thousand inhabitants each and the county seat, Pobra de Trives, with almost twice as many, 5,541. The population remained practically stable until the middle of the 20th century, with a slight redistribution towards the head municipality, which grew moderately, and so in 1950 the region had 14,596 inhabitants, a slight reduction of 5.2% in five decades. From that moment onwards, the abandonment of farming marked a significant demographic decline, especially in the municipalities of Chandrexa de Queixa and Manzaneda, which lost half of their population in three decades. 1981 was a new turning point, as the regional capital, which until then had been favoured by the passage of the N-120 national road and the birth of the neighbouring ski resort of Manzaneda, began to lose population at a dizzying rate, dropping from 5,527 inhabitants to 3,077 in just ten years. In 2022, the county had 3,850 inhabitants, which means that seven out of every ten people who lived in the county in 1970 have left this territory. The process of population concentration in the head of the county is also evident. In 1900, 36% of the county's population resided in the municipality of Pobra, whereas in 2022 it was 52.4%.
Demographic evolution runs parallel to economic evolution. The less productive lands are abandoned first, and in a mountainous region where arable land is reduced due to the scarcity of suitable soils, forestry, a traditional activity in Trives, is gradually abandoned from the mid-1950s onwards. The traditional cultural landscapes of centuries-old chestnut groves and the buildings erected by the local population for use during the chestnut harvesting season ('Sequeiros') have thus been abandoned. The most vulnerable territory due to its geographical characteristics is in absolute decline, with a multitude of dwellings abandoned in the less accessible villages. The mountain resort of Cabeza de Manzaneda has represented a significant economic investment since its inauguration in 1969, but it is a very isolated and seasonal resort, with moderate snowfall characteristics which prevent it from becoming a real driving force for development in the area.
In recent years, as in the other three counties analysed, a real possibility for the development of the area has been to recover and enhance the value of the traditional production of the region, revitalising the cultural landscapes of Trives, based on the integrated, sustainable and ecological production of the chestnut groves.
Data on chestnut production in Ourense date back to 1922, when the statistical advance of agricultural production in Spain recorded 293,310 chestnut trees for the province of Ourense, spread over an estimated area of 240 ha, with an average production of 25 kg per tree, calculating a production of 7,332 tonnes of chestnuts, with a value of 2,199,825 pesetas. In 2002, the area under chestnut cultivation in the Trives region was 1,317 ha, which has been reduced to 924 ha up in 2018.
The PGI Galician Chestnut, declared in 2009 over a wide area that includes the provinces of Ourense and Lugo -minus the coast- and part of Pontevedra and A Coruña, is promoting, together with the action of the regional administration, the recovery of traditional chestnut groves and the generation of other new plantations, managed under the form of production and marketing cooperatives. In 2014 the registered surface area reached 639 ha, and in 2020 it increased to 1,291 ha, although the Xunta de Galicia estimated that throughout the community chestnut production had increased considerably in recent years and would occupy an approximate surface area of 49,000 ha. The production registered in the PGI has reached more than 40 tonnes, of which more than half is sold fresh and around 30–40% frozen for export to Japan, the United States or France.
Moreover, the Lourizán forestry research technology centre and other institutions and companies have been looking for years for complementarity in the integral use of these chestnut forests, either with medicinal plants, or with other fruits for the production of jams, or as food and habitat for selected pig breeding.