Poor harvest to cost arable farmers £800 million
Arable farmers in the UK are facing a reduction in revenues of more than £800 million following one of the worst ever harvests, analysis suggests.
This year Britain had the hottest and driest spring on record and the hottest summer with drought conditions widespread.
As a result, the production of the five staple arable crops – wheat, oats, spring and winter barley and oilseed rape – fell by 20 per cent compared with the 10-year average, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
The harvest in England was the second-worst in records going back to 1984.
This year’s anticipated poor harvest comes following one of the worst harvests on record last year after the preceding autumn and winter saw extreme rainfall.
Lost production last year was partly offset by high prices, which remained elevated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving up commodity prices in 2022 to 24.
Tom Lancaster, Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s land, food and farming analyst, said: “This has been another torrid year for many farmers in the UK, with the pendulum swinging from too wet to too hot and dry.
“With confidence in the sector at rock bottom, there is an urgent need to ensure farmers are better supported to adapt to these climate shocks and build their resilience as the bedrock of our food security.”
Mr Lancaster said delays to the relaunch of green farming payment schemes, such as the sustainable farming incentive, “are the last thing the industry needs”.
“Without reaching net zero emission there is no way to limit impacts like this from making food production in the UK ever more difficult,” he said.
David Lord, an arable farmer from Essex and member of the Nature Friendly Farming Network steering group, said: “With costs rising faster than prices, I’m not sure how many more years like this we can take as an industry.
“As a farmer, I’m used to taking the rough with the smooth but recent years have seen near-constant extreme rainfall, heat and drought.
“Green farming schemes are a vital lifeline for me, helping build my resilience to these shocks whilst providing cash flow to help buffer me financially.
“But with the schemes closed and no clarity on their future, too many farmers are locked out, unable to access the support they need to adapt while facing a wider agriculture policy that does too little to build our resilience and too often works against it.”
The analysis comes ahead of a long-awaited review into farm profitability by Baroness Batters, the former president of the National Farmers’ Union.