UNIT 2 ECONOMY: PRIMARY SECTOR

THE PRIMARY SECTOR

People working in the primary sector obtain resources directly from nature. The main activities of the primary sector are arable farming, livestock farming, fishing, mining and forestry. Other jobs include beekeeping and fish farming.

ARABLE FARMING: Produces crops. The number of people working in crop farming has declined in recent years. However, production has increased due to modern farming techniques.

There are two main types of crops:

·Irrigated crops: These crops need a lot of water in order to grow. They include oranges, lemons, peaches and other fruit and vegetables, such as lettuces, tomatoes and peppers.

·Dry crop: These do not need much water in order to grow. They include olives and grains, such as wheat.

LIVESTOCK FARMING: involves rising different animals for food and non-food products.

There are two main types of farming:

·Extensive farming: In this farming animals live in open pastures where they eat what they can find on nature, an example is the Iberian pig.

·Intensive farming: Farmers rise animals in buildings feeding them with processed food. Most of milk cows are an example of intensive farming.

MINING: is the action of extracting rocks and minerals from the ground. Not many people are employed in mining in Spain. However, a wide variety of materials are mined, such as coal, zinc, mercury, granite and marble.

There are two types:

·Underground mines: where workers extract the materials from caves.

·Opencast mines and quarries: miners extract the mineral from the surface.

 FISHING: is still an important part of the primary sector in Spain with important ports in Galicia where we can find shellfish farms too.

There are two main types of fishing:

·Coastal fishing is near the coast so fishermen return to port at the end of the day.

·Deep-sea fishing is far from the coast and fishermen spend weeks or even months on deep sea.

FORESTRY: is the growing of trees and maintenance of forests to obtain products, such as wood, cork, cellulose and resin. The main forests include pine, eucalyptus, beech, oak and holm oak.

Spain's most important forestry product is cork, which is obtained from the bark of cork oak trees.