Portugal AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, AND FISHING
Lisnave docks near Lisbon
Courtesy General Directorate of Mass Communication, Lisbon
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed 17.8
percent of
Portugal's labor force but accounted for only 6.2 percent
of GDP
in 1990. With the principal exception of the alluvial
soils of
the Rio Tejo (Tagus River in English) valley and the
irrigated
sections of the Alentejo, crop yields and animal
productivity
remained well below those of the other EC members.
Portugal's
agro-food deficit (attributable mainly to grain, oilseed,
and
meat imports) represented about 2.5 percent of GDP, but
its
surplus on forestry products (wood, cork, and paper pulp)
offset
its food deficit.
Portugal's overall agricultural performance was
unfavorable
when viewed in the context of the country's natural
resources and
climatic conditions. Agricultural productivity (gross farm
output
per person employed) was well below that of the other West
European countries in 1985, at half of the levels in
Greece and
Spain and a quarter of the EC average.
A number of factors contributed to Portugal's poor
agricultural performance. First, the level of investment
in
agriculture was traditionally very low. The number of
tractors
and the quantity of fertilizer used per hectare were
one-third
the EC average in the mid-1980s. Second, farms in the
north were
small and fragmented; half of them were less than one
hectare in
size, and 86 percent less than five hectares. Third, the
collective farms set up in the south after the 1974-75
expropriations proved incapable of modernizing, and their
efficiency declined. Fourth, poor productivity was
associated
with the low level of education of farmers. Finally,
distribution
channels and economic infrastructure were inadequate in
parts of
the country.
Data as of January 1993
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