Escenarios de producción agraria territorializada: los olivares del Duero (Castilla y León)

Abstract

Changes in environmental conditions due to climate change, together with the development of intensive precision agriculture, have enabled new crops, such as olive groves, to be cultivated in areas that were previously considered a thermal limit, like the central plains of Castilla y León in Spain. The expansion of olive groves towards the east (provinces of Zamora and Valladolid), is taking place along the Douro, a river renowned for its wine and olive production in the portuguese North Region and along the border of the Raya. Although the olive groves in the sedimentary basins cover very little surface area, they are linked to the quality and productive/business diversification strategies of wineries registered in the Douro wine DO. The interest lies in the multifunctionality of quality productions (wine and olive oil), which give rise to complementary business activities (wine and olive oil tourism), with the territory of origin and the landscape serving as axes of differentiation and prestige. This study aims to explore the scope and significance of olive grove development in an area without a cultivation. The discussion focuses on revising the concept of territorial anchorage since the uniqueness of the territory and overcoming environmental limitations of the production space are the main arguments used to characterize these oils.