While much has been achieved in recent decades, climate change presents major future challenges for farm water resources, says water specialist Paul Hammett - who is retiring in January after a 40-year career with the National Farmers' Union (NFU).

I joined the NFU East Anglia regional team in the early 1990s, at a time when a series of agricultural droughts led to "irrigation bans" being imposed on farmers and growers by the NRA (now the Environment Agency).

Threats by the regulator to restrict crop irrigation were greeted with frustration and fury by farmers, because they seemed to arrive without warning and just before harvest, when significant sums had been spent on nurturing the crop.

The worst-case impact of a ban on abstracting water is when the crop dies and all related income for that year is then lost.

I look back on that period as a failure of process and relationships rather than of regulatory procedures. The regulator lacked understanding of crop production and had no mechanism in place for engaging with farmers as the drought worsened.

For their part, farmers lacked both the tools for manging the risks associated with hot and dry weather conditions, and the evidence that showed the economic consequences of rigid application of rules.

Much was learned by all sides during those difficult summers and much has changed for the better.

On farms, we’ve witnessed the building of new reservoirs designed to capture and store surplus water for use at times of low river flows. Farmers have invested in irrigation equipment and technology that delivers greater efficiency and sustainability.

We have improved our communication with government agencies and others who have a stake in the water environment, so we can share knowledge and work together on addressing short and longer-term water availability pressures.

Farmers have learned how to get their message across about the importance of water for food production and our need for a fair share of available water, although that remains a challenge given the general perception that food should become cheaper while production standards continue to climb.

This year’s launch of the NFU’s integrated water management strategy is both a major leap forward and an obvious next step in bringing this activity together.

After two agricultural droughts in the past three years, interspersed with countless localised flooding events, the key surely lies in the effective management of both too much and not enough water.

Much progress has been made over the past 30 years, but climate change presents us with even greater challenges for the next 30, challenges that cannot be solved at individual farm level.

New and innovative partnerships must be the answer and opportunities to collaborate with other sectors through initiatives such as Water Resources East will certainly come to the fore in the years ahead.