A prolonged dry spell has prompted fears for some of this season's crops – and brought a fresh focus to longer-term concerns about the availability of irrigation water.

Eastern Daily Press: Andrew Francis, farm manager at Elveden Estate. Picture: Ian BurtAndrew Francis, farm manager at Elveden Estate. Picture: Ian Burt (Image: Archant 2017)

With thirsty crops struggling to grow in dry soils, concerns about water have become a topical talking point on farms.

But after ministers temporarily pulled the plug on abstraction reforms due to Defra's legislative workload ahead of Brexit, there are also concerns about whether the future licensing regime will allow enough irrigation supplies to deal with subsequent dry summers.

Despite the delay, Defra says it is committed to reforming abstraction laws to make a 'fairer, more integrated, and more resilient' system which can 'address future risks to water availability, support business growth in sectors that rely on water, and secure public water supplies, all while protecting the environment'.

For East Anglia's farmers, the worry is that they lose some of their allocated share of water which could be increasingly vital if, for example, the region's groundwater resources were to be depleted by a second dry winter.

Eastern Daily Press: An irrigation system working on the Elveden Estate. Picture: Ian BurtAn irrigation system working on the Elveden Estate. Picture: Ian Burt (Image: Archant 2017)

Tim Jolly farms 850 arable acres in Roudham near Thetford, growing mainly irrigated vegetables including potatoes, onions and carrots.

'At the moment we don't have a problem,' he said. 'All our supply is from groundwater, and the only people who might have a problem at the moment are those who have not been able to fill their reservoirs over the winter time.

'But all groundwater licences are going to be reviewed. Effectively, what is likely to happen is that groundwater licences will be reduced to the maximum that has been extracted in any one year since 2000.

'There are people around here who have used 100pc of their groundwater in that time, but we have not, so we will effectively take a cut. I think ours will be about 75pc of what it was.

'So what happens when we go forward and there is climate change that increases demand over a run of years? Somehow the industry has got to look at the supply and demand and balance it out.'

Part of the solution could be to build more winter storage reservoirs – but Mr Jolly said more government help would be needed.

'In my humble opinion, if I am putting a reservoir in to get over the worst of times it is basically an insurance policy, but it is an insurance policy that comes with a huge cost. Somehow that long-term cost has to be recouped from the market place.

'You as a domestic consumer pay for your water, and the insurance of all that storage reservoirs and capacity is built into your charge. There is no mechanism for doing that in a commercial sense. I cannot go to Tesco and say I need to put in a reservoir, just in case I might need to use it in ten years' time.

'As a producer I have to say to myself that in ten years' time or five years, or even this year, I might run out of water. That is going to cost me as a business but I have got to decide whether to spend £500,000 on a reservoir, or do I take the risk of planting a potato crop that I can't irrigate in June?

'At the moment there is a grant scheme for reservoirs but it is very difficult to access it. It would be easier to address this situation through fiscal taxation, so instead of treating reservoirs the same as buildings and spreading costs over 25 years, you could treat them as expenditure in the current year so you can write them off against tax in year one.'

While pre-election rules prevented Defra from making a comment, environment secretary Andrea Leadsom, during a campaign visit to East Anglia on April 28, said: 'Abstraction reform is something the department has been looking at for a long time and will continue to do once the general election is over.'

LEGISLATION PROSPECTS

Lingering hopes that ministers would give long-awaited licensing changes the green light were dashed when environment minister Thérèse Coffey told the All Party Parliamentary Water Group that work on abstraction reform law was to be put on hold.

The Suffolk Coastal MP told the group last month that she could not promise any primary legislation in the near future and said they must be 'realistic' about the programme Defra faces as a result of Brexit – although secondary legislation remains an option.

A Defra spokesman said the department is 'committed to the reform of the current abstraction licensing system' and is 'currently examining a range of approaches to implementation, including legislation'.

Paul Hammett, the National Farmers' Union's water resources specialist, welcomed Defra's 'intended focus on finding solutions at the local catchment scale', but added: 'The elephant in the room for abstraction reform is, of course, the question of whether farmers and other abstractors will be disadvantaged when their current licences are replaced by permits, and the compensation issues that could arise from the loss of water rights as a production input and business asset.'

CURRENT SITUATION

While East Anglian farms have enjoyed good weather conditions for spring planting, months of below-average rainfall has meant rain-fed crops such as cereals are beginning to suffer from low soil moisture.

Irrigation has started early in some areas, including in Breckland, where Elveden Estate farm manager Andrew Francis said he has already used 10pc of his licensed abstraction allowance.

'That is water we would not normally use,' he said. 'We have had to water the cereals and all our small seeded stuff like carrots, parsnips and drilled onions to get it to germinate.

'Our two reservoirs are full but I dare not touch them because they are there to provide water in June and July when everything is growing at its peak. 'It is concerning, because it has the feel of 2011 where we also had a dry winter and a dry spring, but the rain in August saved the day.

'The Domesday scenario is if this weather pattern continues into August. Some of our winter barley will already have had a negative yield impact, but how much that will be depends on how much rain we get from now on. If there is no rain it could be 60-70pc yield losses on the winter barley, because we have to prioritise our water to the vegetables where the highest return is.'