Most of us in northern Europe envisage Spain as a holiday destination where sunshine appears unbroken and rain is an occasional wonder. And in our minds it is not automatically associated with agriculture for this reason.

But whether it be the Costa del Sol or the Costa Blanca, agriculture is never very far away. You may be quite surprised to hear that one could find wheat, barley or sunflower within 10 miles of Malaga, one of the main airline entry points to the south.

The Irish Tillage and Land Use Society (ITLUS) visited Spain last June on a study tour to get an overview of its agriculture from north to south. A group of 37 travelled and, to say the least, they were generally surprised by what they saw.

The vision of sandy beaches, continuous sunshine and desert-like landscapes becomes shattered once you enter northern Spain.

The northern countryside is, perhaps, exactly what you might not expect to see in Spain. Travelling from Bilbao to Santander, the countryside was green and undulating and it copes well with the warmer climate, helped by about 1.2 metres of rainfall annually (47in), which is similar to much of the west of Ireland.

Overview

Spain has a population of about 47 million people, roughly half of which is in the labour force. Both population and labour force have been increasing since the late 1990s.

There is currently less than 1% of the labour force involved directly in agriculture and this has been decreasing over time. Rural population is put at 22.3 million in 2013 and 3.8% of this is involved in agriculture.

Spain’s land area was put at 49.88m hectares in 2012, with 12.4m hectares regarded as arable land (decreasing), 4.56m hectares in permanent crops and 18.53m hectares in forestry.

The working land (arable plus permanent crops) accounts for 40.4% of land use while forestry is 27.7%.

Grain production in Spain is quite variable. Production varied from 11 to almost 25m tonnes in recent years. Rainfall level has a big impact on production.

Travelling through the country, we were amazed to see grain crops almost everywhere we went.

Land use appeared to be quite unspecific and one could see grain crops close to either grass, vines or olives. There was very little evidence of land not being used for some productive purpose.

There was certainly an amount of poor land, but this was mainly on hills and mountains. Even still, most of this was being used for either rough grazing or for trees.

We later learned that some combination of available moisture and/or soil fertility were the major drivers of land use and, where water was supplied by irrigation, higher-value crops like vines, olives and citrus tended to be grown.

We also saw some irrigated cereals. This was particularly unusual because it involved fine mist irrigation from permanent irrigation poles within fields.

So all the operating machinery had to work around these poles which seemed to be located at around 20-metre centres. Some of these fields had just been harvested – the straw was being baled and gathered and none of the poles seemed to be damaged.

Changing landscape

As one moves from north to south, the countryside gets visually drier looking and this happens quite quickly. Irrigation became more common as we moved south from the northern coastline, but we also gained altitude as we moved inland.

Much of the central agricultural plateau region of Spain is either side of 1,000 metres above sea level, but temperature is not an issue. Cereals are grown at this and lower altitudes and right down to the south of the country.

As you drive through the countryside, it is remarkable how quickly the agricultural landscape changes. You can go from poor cereals into good olive plantations or vineyards and then back to good-looking cereals again. And this could happen every few miles.

Water availability and soil quality appeared to be the main reasons for the abrupt changes.

Another thing that was striking was the vast plains of agricultural land. While much of the central plateau is at 750 to 1,000 metres, it is far from flat and there are still hills above the plains, which can be used to show off the vista.

Land use is varied everywhere, but crop makeup is somewhat regional. Grass and maize silage are common close to the northern coast; cereals can be found everywhere, especially wheat, but the greatest concentration is on the central plateau around Madrid.

Spain grows more barley than wheat, but the wheat is sometimes irrigated and so output is less affected by annual drought.

Agriculture tends to be mixed in most regions with tillage on the better, flat areas and livestock on the poorer, hillier land.

As we travelled towards the mouth of the River Guadalquivir, the only crop grown was rice, and for good reasons.

Citrus production tended to be more south-based, but olives could be seen in many regions.

Vines were very much part of the landscape too and vineyards can be found in most regions of Spain.

The famous La Rioja wine region is towards the north and makes for beautiful countryside should you ever get the opportunity to drive through it.

In this region, it is common for grape producers to not have their own winery and these growers supply their grapes to other local wine makers.

We saw a lot of excellent land use in the different parts of Spain that we drove through. That said, one could be forgiven for suggesting that much of the cereal production is a type of middle-class land use.

Wild oats were far too common and numerous in fields and creeping thistle was also bad in places. Yet some of the olive, citrus and vineyards were well manicured and looked to be very productive.

But we also learned not to judge the quality of the farmer by the land.

Even in some of the high, poorer-looking grassland in the north, we met some top-class farmers and there is little doubt that these exist everywhere in the country.

This short report forms the general impressions of Spanish agriculture. In the coming weeks, I will report on some of the many visits we made to farmers and businesses throughout the country.