Mountain agriculture today represents 16% of utilized agricultural area (UAA) in the 27 member European Union states (EU-27) and 34% in Spain (European Commission 2013). Mountain areas are defined by their unfavorable topography, typically described by elevation and/or slope, remoteness, and more extreme climate, but this can vary significantly between countries. In the mountains, agriculture faces several limitations, related to the existence of permanent natural handicaps, which reduce production alternatives and result in lower labor and land productivity. Mountain farms are smaller on average than those in lowland areas (Santini et al 2013), and population density is also lower than in lowlands or in the country as a whole (Nordregio 2004). Difficulties in market integration have led to a severe structural adjustment in mountain  agriculture, including a steep decrease in the number of farms, land abandonment, and extreme depopulation (Collantes and Pinilla 2004). Farmland abandonment in mountain areas affects the economic viability of these areas and has environmental impacts (MacDonald et al 2000; Haddaway et al 2013). Compensation policies have been established to offset these limitations, but agricultural incomes remain much lower in mountain areas than in lowlands (Bazin 1990). This study investigated the adjustments made by mountain farmers in northwest Spain and compared them with nearby nonmountain areas. Within this framework, we analyzed the growth and diversification strategies adopted by the farmers in recent years and the challenges that lie ahead, and we assessed the effect on strategies of the location and the characteristics of the farm and farmer.