Gypseous lands occur mainly in arid regions of the world, where irrigation is required for profitable agriculture. The study of gypseous soils has been neglected for years in the main stream of the soil science. Agriculture and, more recently, the environmental concerns are challenging research in the countries that have extensive gypsum outcrops. Those challenges have been obvious since at least the 1960s, when economic development in some of these countries led to the construction of new irrigation schemes and associated infrastructures. This paper presents examples of documents about agriculture on gypseous soils in Spain that might be applicable to similar situations elsewhere in the world. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.