The state of agricultural landscapes in the Mediterranean: smallholder agriculture and land abandonment in terraced landscapes of the Ricote Valley, southeast Spain

Abstract The fast and broad adoption of mechanization chemical inputs in Mediterranean terraced agriculture, combined with warming climate trends, has led to the progressive degradation environmental social conditions. These factors have concurred increasing abandonment smallholder agriculture. We aimed detect quantify progression cultivated abandoned fields Ricote Valley between 2016 2019 while also exploring reasons for land over past decades. To agricultural terraces, we conducted (1) a terrace detection based on Lidar cadaster data, (2) use classification Sentinel imagery, (3) an investigation participant observation expert survey. Our results show high rates compared total available area Valley. In 2016, 56% detected was classified as not cultivated. 2019, percentage decreased 40%. Small parcels are higher than large or medium-sized parcels. identified five main underlying abandonment: low income farmers; fragmentation resulting transaction costs; lack interest activities among young generations; (4) modernization; (5) emotional bonds preventing sale stressed importance place-based mixed method approach gain comprehensive understanding specificities given research area.