United Kingdom:
British farmers pray for rain while Great Britain suffers its driest spring in more than a century, so that the soil has dried out and crops impeded by lack of water.
On its 400 hectare (988 hectare) farm near the eastern city of Peterborough, Luke Abblitt unfortunately asked his fields of thirsty sugar beet and potatoes that struggled to grow.
No drop of rain has fallen since March.
“I am not entirely sure how I will treat it on the farm, I hope we will get some rain, if not, I will somehow have to do something magical way,” Abblitt, 36, told AFP.
The small green shoots of the sugar beet that poke the cracked, dusty earth “should be at least twice as big,” he sighed.
In a neighboring field he has just planted potatoes with the help of his father, Clive, to break the baked soil.
A total of 80.6 millimeters (3.1 inch) rain has fallen since the start of spring, which includes the months of March, April and May, according to the National Weather Agency.
That is far below the lowest point of 100.7 millimeters, which according to Office fell in 1852.
“This spring has been the driest for more than a century so far,” said it with Office, warning that it would be necessary to wait until the end of May to confirm the record.
According to the environmental agency, levels in the reservoirs have fallen to “exceptionally low”.
It called a meeting of his national drying group last week, in which Deputy Director of Water Richard Thompson said that climate change meant: “We will see more summer dries in the coming decades”.
The dry start of the year meant that water companies “moved water over their regions to illuminate the driest areas”, a spokesperson for Water UK, the industrial authority that represents water suppliers, AFP said.
Memories linger in Great Britain of July 2022 when the temperatures first amounted to 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit).
'One extreme to the other'
In a shed, the Abblitts worked side by side with a noisy potato devices that were harvested in 25 kilos last year.
“Potatoes are much heavier users of water … and they are also much more high value. So we urgently need some rain,” said Luke Abblitt.
Without water, a potato “will only reach a certain stage before it stops and then it will not get bigger,” he added.
If his potatoes have remained behind, he will not be able to sell them to his most important customers who are British fish and chip shops.
“I have to make sure they are a reasonable size, because everyone wants big chips, nobody wants little chips, right?” he said.
The weather goes from “one extreme to the other,” he said depressed.
“We have a lot of rain in the winter, not so much rain in the spring or summer time. We have to adjust our cultivation methods, look at different varieties, make different cropping to combat these unfavorable weather conditions.”
In recent years, Great Britain has been damaged by large storms and is struck by floods and heat waves.
“As our climate changes, the chance of drought increases,” says Liz Bentley, Chief Executive at the Royal Meteorological Society.
“They will probably become more frequent, and they will probably be more extended,” she warned.
In recent years, the country experienced a serious drought every 16 years.
“In this current decade that has increased to one in five years, and in the coming decades it will be one in three years.”
And a decrease in harvesting threatens to increase prices in the supermarkets, she added.
Some farmers have started irrigating their crops rather than normal, said the National Farmers' Union, which is called for investments to improve water storage and collection systems.
Vice President Rachel Hallos warned: “Extreme weather patterns … have an influence on our ability to feed the nation”.
Two years ago, Abblitt applied for a license to install an irrigation system on the country that he rents from the local authorities.
He is still waiting. “I just pray for the rain,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
