Farmers have warned that Potato and cereal crops are likely to have been heavily damaged by the recent devastating floods across the UK.
Entire fields were reportedly submerged in water after Storm Babet swept across the country, with crops ruined.
According to reports, extreme weather events are becoming more likely and frequent due to climate breakdown, and have caused food shortages and price increases.
The storms are said to have left at least seven people dead and hundreds more homeless after flash floods followed heavy rain. An estimated 1,250 properties in England have been flooded while about 30,000 properties have needed flood protection, according to the Environment Agency.
Farmers say that the floods will damage this year’s harvest. The Soil Association’s farming adviser, Jerry Alford was quoted as saying that the flooding will have a devastating impact on winter cereals and make spring cropping more likely with the inevitable lower yields.
“Those farmers affected who have already invested in planting this year will be facing a catastrophic impact and considerable financial losses at a time of real crisis,”. “Parts of the UK are hugely vulnerable to flooding and recent years have shown that the impact of climate change is going to wreak havoc with harvests unless we act now to build on farm resilience, review land use and build a plan for horticulture which addresses these risks.”
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