The Observer has reported on discussions which took place at a national drought group meeting which was attended by the Environment Agency, water companies, farmers and other groups, as the government conceded that the drought is likely to continue to a number of months.
Among the warnings issued at the meeting were that a lack of rainfall would make it impossible to refill winter storage reservoirs, leaving irrigated crops such as fruit and vegetables vulnerable to low rainfall next season.
According to the newspaper, slides presented at the meeting warned, “If reservoirs cannot be filled during the winter 2022/23, which it is felt could be a possibility, this would have serious implications for businesses, the supply chains and those employed within them.
“Confidence is needed by the sector to have access to water to enable cropping plans to be enacted. Where confidence is not available, cropping rotations are being reviewed and reductions in areas of irrigated crops/water hungry crops are being undertaken.”
NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw said, said, “As the irrigation season is coming to a close and attention is turned to winter abstraction for storage reservoir fill, we have been working with the Environment Agency to further support the industry through these challenging times, with flexible abstraction measures being provided.
“However, more needs to be done to provide short-term certainty that water will be available for food production for the next growing season.”
Although much of the country experienced average rainfall in September, consistent above-average rainfall is needed throughout the autumn and winter to bring England out of drought, and this is unlikely.