Wildfires have already affected 15,842 hectares of farmland in Spain between January and 17 August 2026, according to claim declarations received by Agroseguro, the entity that manages Spain’s combined agricultural insurance system. The figure remains provisional, but it already places 2026 as the second-worst year of the past decade in terms of insured agricultural land affected by fire, behind only 2025.
Agroseguro expects compensation for fire-related damage to exceed €2 million by the end of the year, as farmers continue to report losses suffered in recent weeks once they are able to access affected farms and production areas.
More than 116,500 hectares in ten years
Including claims declared in 2026, the agricultural area affected by fires over the past decade now exceeds 116,500 hectares. During that period, Agroseguro is expected to have paid more than €22 million in compensation for fire damage affecting agricultural crops and livestock farms.
Over the same ten-year period, 593 fire-related claims have been reported in livestock holdings, including 12 so far in 2026. These figures do not include insurance covering the collection and disposal of dead animals.
Seville, Huesca, Cordoba and Lleida among the most affected provinces
The area declared as damaged this year is spread across 41 Spanish provinces, although four of them record particularly high levels of impact, each exceeding 1,000 hectares. Seville leads with 2,030 hectares, followed by Huesca with 1,559 hectares, Cordoba with 1,489 hectares and Lleida with 1,454 hectares.
More than 90% of the damage corresponds to arable crops, although the impact also extends to other crops such as sunflower, legumes and nuts.
2025 remains the worst year of the decade
The year 2025 still holds the highest figure for agricultural land damaged by fire in the past decade, with more than 20,700 hectares burned. A large part of that damage was linked to fires in La Segarra, in Lleida, where more than 1,000 plots and 6,345 hectares of cereal crops were affected.
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Another particularly significant year was 2022, when 15,371 hectares were declared damaged, mainly in Navarre, where fires in June affected almost 2,000 plots of arable crops and vineyards.
Agricultural insurance covers fire damage
Agroseguro recalls that fire damage is covered under Spain’s combined agricultural insurance system, both for crop production and livestock farms.
For arable crops, the production category with the largest insured area in Spain and whose harvest coincides with the summer months, fire cover also includes production affected by the creation of preventive firebreaks required for firefighting operations.
According to the entity, agricultural insurance covers fire damage regardless of the origin of the blaze. Agroseguro also stresses that, in the event of a fire, there is no immediate urgency to report the damage, especially when access to farms is not yet safe.
