Farmers warn shoppers face smaller and more expensive vegetables due to hot weather

Farmers source additional water for their crops and livestock over summer from a combination of stored winter rainfall on site, and by extracting it from natural sources – a process called abstraction.

This can be from groundwater or from surface water, like rivers and streams.

This summer has seen significant low rainfall affecting the amount of water available to draw from.

Half of England and all of Wales have been declared to be in drought conditions by the Environment Agency.

Wales has received just 8% of its average rainfall so far this month. England has received 7% of its average, with that figure as low as 1% across southern England.

The high temperatures and repeated heatwaves have also increased evaporation rates which have particularly hit rivers.

Climate change is expected to bring more severe, frequent and longer-lasting heatwaves in UK summers in the coming years – which could bring more water shortages for farmers.

Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the ECIU said: “At the start of spring farmers were hopeful of a better year, but the dry April and July and record-breaking heat have left farmers facing down the barrel of a third awful harvest in a row.

“Farming is now the sector most exposed to climate change and the risks and damage that it brings.”

Martin Lines, head of the Nature Friendly Farming Network and a farmer from Cambridgeshire, said this year’s harvest “has been a real kick in the teeth”.

“After two terrible harvests in a row, the crops this year were looking good and full of potential coming out of spring, only for months of drought and heatwaves to destroy any prospect of a decent harvest,” he said.

“I’ve never known it this dry and hot on our farm.

“Even farmers I know who were sceptical of climate change are now saying they’re really worried about the future of their businesses and production, it’s just been completely brutal for our industry.”