As growers across the country come to terms with the effects of the latest named storm of the winter, Storm Henk, concerns have grown about the availability of crops including vegetables, both in terms of crops currently in the ground and when it will be possible to sow and plant crops in spring.
Following last week’s heavy rainfall, the NFU has said that farmers who are expected to let fields of crops flood to protect towns should also be compensated. Persistent rain over the Christmas and New Year period was followed by Storm Henk, all of which added additional water to soils and catchments which were at full capacity following Storms Babet and Ciaran in the autumn.
In parts of Lincolnshire, river levels around the Trent valley are at their highest ever recorded levels, while farmland south of Lincoln is once again flooded. Environment Secretary Steve Barclay told the BBC, the government was helping farmers by investing in flood defences, saying: “The work that the government has done has protected over half a million acres of farmland and, of course, we are committing more money to future schemes as well – over £5bn of investment in 2,000 schemes that the government has committed to over a six-year period from 2021.”
However, NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw warned, “This constant wet weather again highlights the need for government to recognise the strategic importance of domestic food production and urgently deliver solutions to mitigate the impact of flooding of farmland to ensure our farmers and growers can continue producing food for the nation.”
At the same time, suppliers such as Nationwide Produce have said they are seeing shortages in the availability of winter vegetable crops such as carrots, parsnips, leeks and cauliflowers. Carrot production in Nottinghamshire has been particularly hard hit. Jack Ward of British Growers told the Fresh Produce Journal that Storm Henk was “the straw that has broken the camel’s back.”
He added, “It started raining in September and we’ve had little dry weather since, so the ground’s been saturated. These conditions will put a lot of stress on crops that are planned to provide us with fresh produce for the next 12-15 weeks. The next problem is that we need to start planting vegetable crops for harvesting when Spanish crops start to run out in May. So, if plantings are delayed, we could see some real pinch points as we swap between the seasons.”