‘Totally reliant on Mother Nature’: UK drought raises water security fears
Record heatwaves have troubled British farmers, raising concerns over reservoir levels and food supply.
London, United Kingdom – In a wheat field near High Wycombe in the rolling English countryside, Alex Nelms watched the harvest on his farm die in a matter of days.
His crop had looked strong until the first heatwave came in May, when temperatures surpassed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) just as his milling wheat entered its grain-fill phase, the critical weeks when the plant fattens its kernels.
“It just killed everything stone dead,” he told Al Jazeera. “Everything was finished really early, and when we were sort of full of optimism and hope, it was scuppered almost overnight.”
He believes action is needed now to ensure the future of British farming “and enable the next generation to keep producing the nation’s food”.