The number of flood warnings on England’s best farmland during the winter hit a record high of over 1,000, exceeding the previous record by a fifth, new analysis by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit has revealed.
The analysis showed 1,008 flood warnings, when a flood is ‘expected’ in an area, were issued on grade one and grade two farmland, England’s most productive land, up from a previous high of 775 in the winter of 2019/20.
ECIU suggested there was an increasing risk posed by extreme weather to England’s farmland.
It added there were also a record number of flood alerts, which indicate when flooding is ‘possible’, at 3,344 on grade one and two land. The previous winter record was 2,808 and set in 2019/20.
“With much of England’s best farmland low-lying and in flood plains, the increasing likelihood of extreme weather that climate change brings presents an outsized risk for UK food production,” said ECIU land food and farming analyst Tom Lancaster. “The good news is the government’s green farming schemes can help farmers become more resilient to these impacts, by improving soil health and planting trees to slow floodwaters, but further support will be needed to help farmers adapt.
“Fundamentally, though, moving faster to net zero emissions is the only way to stop these risks from escalating,” he added.
Grade one farmland covers around 355,000 hectares, or 3.1% of all agricultural land in England, and grade two covers 1.8 million hectares, or 16% of farmland, ECIU said. Grade one farmland is particularly valuable as it is well suited to growing high-value crops including vegetables, fruit and salad.
Of the grade one farmland in England, over 11% was hit by at least one flood warning over winter.
On top of this, many farmers struggled with waterlogged fields and failed to get crops established. The combination of unprecedented flood risk and the volume of rain saturating soils may have reduced this year’s harvest by up to a fifth, reducing arable farm revenues by nearly £1bn.
“Farmers have been hit hard by extreme weather linked to climate change over the winter, and it’s clear now that climate change presents a systemic risk to our best farmland, and therefore our food security,” said Lancaster.
Recent poling by ECIU by More in Common suggested farmers felt extreme weather would be the biggest threat to food security in the next 10 years, with 46% of farmers identifying this as an issue.
“The winter we’ve just been through was the worst I can remember, and fills me with dread for what climate change might mean for my business and our industry,” said Colin Chappell, Lincolnshire farmer and member of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, whose farm was hit by two flood warnings and nine flood alerts last winter.
“Climate change is hitting farmers like me here and now, and affecting our best farmland more than most,” he added. “For the sake of our food security, we need to get a handle on our emissions before it’s too late, while also creating a joined-up system of land management to make farming more resilient.”
No comments yet