BRITAIN’S first rice crop is being harvested by farmers making the best of the record-breaking hot summer.
Nine varieties — including risotto, basmati and sushi — have been grown in newly created paddy fields.
They have prospered while this year’s summer has played havoc with wheat and sugar beet on Oxwillow Farm.
Farmers Craig and Sarah-Jane Taylor flooded the fields to grow the rice in a trial to try to restore their land on the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Sarah-Jane said: “Our Fenland soils are some of the most productive in the country but are very susceptible to the changing climate and we need to adapt the crops we grow and how we grow them.”
For hundreds of years, farmers have drained the fens — but drying out the rich, peaty soil has meant it has simply been blown away by the wind.
Our increasingly hot summers make the problem worse, prompting the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology to promote growing alternative crops that thrive in re-flooded fields.
The Taylors have raised the water table on 20 acres near Ely to a few inches below the surface.
It is still low enough for lettuce and celery — while the rice has grown, protected from pests, under the surface.
They say it brings other gains — such as a return of marsh-loving birds and a boost to the area’s drinking water supplies.
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology promoted growing alternative crops that thrive in re-flooded fieldsSWNSHence then, the article about britain s first rice crop being harvested as farmers make best of record breaking hot summer was published today ( ) and is available on The Sun ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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