Twenty year-long water strategy needed says Norfolk farmer
Official figures estimate that wheat and oats yields will score below the UK's five-year average, in 2025
A local farmer is telling us a twenty year-long water strategy is needed- to bolster national food security.
It follows new figures from the Met Office which suggest this summer will be the warmest on record.
This would mean all of the UK's top five warmest summers will have happened since 2000.
The mean average temperature for the season currently stands at 16.13C, based on data up to August 25.
This is comfortably above the average for the warmest summer on record, which is 15.76C, set in 2018.
Official figures estimate that wheat and oats yields will score below the UK's five-year average, in 2025.
"For them that saved their crops and harvest"
Nick Deane lives and farms near Hoveton:
"It's a very challenging period for us all in the industry, at the moment. It's obviously been very dry, but there was a saving-grace of rain about eight weeks ago.
"Some people were lucky enough to get an inch of rainfall over that period and for them that saved their crops and harvest.
"We currently don't have the right climate all through the summer to sustain root crops.
"There is no doubt that the food supply-chain is going to be tightened because of the most recent harvest.
"Some crops are under so much heat-stress that they are flowering earlier than they should be.
"So, it's going to be a more volatile food market out there. There's still plenty of fruit and vegetables out there, but maybe not in such a bounteous supply".
What are Ministers doing here?
The Government says it's fast-tracking the building of nine new reservoirs to improve water supplies.