News Flood defences must be maintained
to protect farmland, warns NFU • Climate change raises farmland threat • New approach to coastal management • Help and advice promised for farmers
F
ears that low-lying farm- land could be abandoned to the sea have heightened af-
ter warnings that climate change will require a new approach to coastal fl ood management. The call for a new approach to
fl ood management comes in an Environment Agency consulta- tion which warns of a potential 4°C rise in global temperature. Entire communities might have to “move out of harm’s way” in the longer term, it suggests. Agency chair Emma Howard Boyd said: “The coastline has nev- er stayed in the same place and there have always been fl oods, but climate change is increasing and accelerating these threats. We can’t win a war against water by building away climate change with infi nitely high fl ood defenc- es.”
Working with farmers The consultation pledges that the agency will work with farmers, landowners and others to identi- fy opportunities for using agricul- tural practices – through funding,
advice and regulation – to man- age fl ooding and coastal change from 2021. Farm leaders have warned that low-lying agricultural land must remain protected – including some 1,500 square miles of the Fens, much of which is below sea lev- el, around the Wash in south-east Lincolnshire, north Cambridgesh- ire and west Norfolk. The importance of farming in
the Fens is highlighted in a new report which calls for fl ood defenc- es to be maintained as sea levels rise. The document was launched last month at Park Farm in Thor- ney, at an event hosted by Cam- bridgeshire farmer Michael Sly. The report maps out how Fen- land farmers grow high quality produce while at the forefront of mitigating the impact of climate change. The food chain in the Fens is worth £3.1bn and employs 80,000 people, says the study.
‘Maintenance essential’ NFU vice president Stuart Rob- erts said well-maintained fl ood de- fences were essential to protect the
“
Next generation farmers Camilla Stacey and Will Veal farm 160ha in the Fens – in- cluding a 120ha Cambridgeshire County Council tenancy at Doddington, near March. The couple grow feed wheat, sugar beet and oilseed rape. They also have a fl ock of 30 breeding ewes plus lambs. A country- side stewardship scheme brings in addi- tional income – as do off-farm jobs while they build the business. Camilla and Will highlight the impor- tance of council tenancies, says the NFU re- port. Called Delivering for Britain: Food and Farming in the Fens, it details the contribu- tion of the agricultural and natural land-
4 ANGLIA FARMER • JUNE 2019
We can’t win a war against water by building infi nitely high defences
Fens – as well as its farms, rural communities and businesses. He added: “This document highlights how the Fens delivers for Britain – both for food and the environ- ment.”
The report warns that farm- land fl ooded by the sea is out of
Case study Fens provide foothold on farming ladder
scape to food and the environment. “Without the council-owned lease we would be struggling to farm in our own right,” says Camilla. “The fi rst year was very hard and we just had to cut back on things. You have to sacrifi ce your spending on leisure activities and build up slowly.” The couple are on a fi ve-year tenancy but hope to move on to a longer-term agree- ment to increase their security of tenure. They are also looking to grow stubble tur- nips to try and control blackgrass and pro- vide a source of food for their sheep over the winter.
production for at least fi ve years because of the effect of salt. “Fresh- water fl ooding will damage crops if they are underwater for a week or more,” it adds. Law fi rm Roythornes Solic- itors recently oversaw a £1.8m sea defence project (pictured above) for 14 landowners and tenants at Wrangle, Boston, Lin- colnshire. Five kilometres of sea defence were improved, protect- ing 3,400ha of prime grade one farmland.
Camilla Stacey and Will [photo: Brian Finnerty]
Photo: Gary Naylor
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