EASTERN MESETA

On the south-eastern edge of the plateau, in the provinces of Albacete, Cuenca and Valencia, an important irrigation area supplied by groundwater has been developed over the last 40 years.

This sector coincides with the traditional districts known as La Mancha Oriental and La Manchuela. It is an area characterised by the predominance of full-time agriculture, with a large farm size compared to other Mediterranean irrigated areas. There, new irrigation transformations are still taking place and pressurised irrigation systems are being introduced directly. Irrigation techniques vary according to the type of crop. Sprinkler irrigation predominates in the herbaceous crops and drip irrigation systems in the areas with woody crops.

In the southwestern sector (Albacete and Cuenca), the development of irrigation was earlier and focused mainly on arable crops, mainly for the domestic market, which reached about 100,000 ha at the end of the last century. Currently, 140,000 ha are irrigated, with a recent increase in woody crops, particularly vines and almond trees. In order to control the exploitation of the aquifer, a Central Board of Users was created in 1994, which monitors the irrigated areas and the endowments applied by means of remote sensing methods. Overexploitation has been also recently compensated with water pumping from the Júcar river.

In the northeastern sector (Requena-Utiel, Valencia), the development of irrigation has been more recent. At the end of the 20th century, barely 1,700 ha were irrigated, the irrigated area has recently increased eight-fold, to 15,163 ha in 2021. Most of the converted lands have incorporated pressurised irrigation systems and, in some cases, with advanced remote-control procedures and humidity sensors. In 2015, the aquifer was declared in bad quantitative state by the river basin agency. Subsequently, the river basin agency approved an exploitation plan and obliged users to create a water users central board.