Farmers 'may face water shortfall'

Higher temperatures, drier soils and more demand for food from a growing population will increase demand for irrigation of crops, experts say
10 July 2013

Climate change could leave farmers with only half as much water as they require to produce crops in the future, Government advisers have warned.

Higher temperatures, drier soils and more demand for food from a growing population will increase demand for irrigation of crops, which are largely produced in drier areas of the UK, the Committee on Climate Change's adaptation team said.

Lower river levels as the country faces increasing weather extremes such as reduced summer rainfall and drought will also contribute to potentially significant shortfalls between the amount of water needed to grow crops and what can be supplied, it said.

Without changes to farming practices, the shortfall in a dry year could be up to 115 billion litres, almost half the 240 billion litres a year used by agriculture, the experts warned. Current farming methods are also depleting fertile soils, they said.

The latest report from the committee looked at what is needed to ensure the land continues to supply important goods and services such as food, timber, habitats and carbon storage as climate change brings expected higher temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather.

The study warned that three quarters of coastal habitats, such as salt marshes, that provide natural flood protection were at risk from sea level rises, pushing up the cost of protecting the land from floods and storms.

The rate of shifting coastal defences back from the sea should increase five-fold to provide space for important habitat and save hundreds of millions of pounds on the cost of preventing coastal flooding over the long term, it said.

The majority of upland peatland in England is in a degraded, dried-out state, making it unable to cope with a warming climate and provide important services such as storing carbon and holding and filtering water supplies. And the proportion of important wildlife sites which are classed as being in good condition has fallen in the past decade, despite pledges to improve habitats, making species more vulnerable to a changing climate, the report said.

Lord Krebs, who chairs the adaptation sub-committee of the Committee on Climate Change, said: "Our analysis shows we are putting future agricultural production at risk, jeopardising coastal habitats that provide vital flood defences, squeezing wildlife habitats and threatening billions of pounds worth of carbon stored in our peatlands.

"There is an important opportunity for the UK as a food producer in a world subject to climate change. However, this is at risk under current farming practices. The Government should act now to develop and implement policies to ensure that we make the right land use choices to ensure we are resilient to climate change."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in