Published1 hour ago
Flood-hit farmers are calling on the government to invest more in river defences in rural areas to protect UK food production.
Thousands of acres of crops and productive farmland are now sitting under rainwater left by Storm Henk.
The NFU says farmers who are expected to let fields of crops flood to protect towns should also be compensated.
A government spokesperson said £221m was being spent on maintaining flood defences in 2023/24.
Persistent wet weather over the Christmas period and New Year has caused further damage to farms that had already been hit by Storms Babet and Ciaran in the autumn.
Third-generation tenant farmer Ollie Stobo, 45, who farms cereal crops on 500 acres of land near Witney in Oxfordshire, has been hit by floodwaters for the seventh time in two years.
Two fields – a tenth of the farm – are currently underwater after the River Evenlode flooded this week.
One field had already been too wet to drill and plant the normal winter crop after the autumn’s heavy rainfall; the second had stubble turnips planted, which a neighbour’s sheep grazed.
“The sheep down there were marooned and we had to get then out fairly quickly because the river levels were coming up so quickly.
“I can jetski now from one end of the farm to the other at the moment!” Mr Stobo told the BBC.
Some local farmers in the area are members of the
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