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Apart from emptying the compost bin from the kitchen, there is no point going to our allotment. The rainfall of the recent weeks and the failure of the developer to install a working drainage system have turned our vegetable beds into lakes. All our efforts to improve the soil by feeding the underground livestock of earthworms, microorganisms and fungi will have been in vain. As I find my way through the mud I think back to the summer mornings when I got up at 5am to water for a good hour. Will I be back doing that again in a few months’ time, during another summer of record heat?
Grim reading
I’m extremely lucky to have an allotment, it’s a pastime and a pleasure, mostly. I don’t work it for a living as a farmer would. At the end of December, the government finally published the Farm Profitability Review compiled by former NFU president Baroness Minette Batters and therefore usually just referred to as ‘the Batter’s Report’. For the financial year 2023 – 2024 average farms in England made a loss by farming, income came from non-farm activities such as having an “event barn” and hosting birthday and wedding parties. “Analysis undertaken by Strutt and Parker (a property consultancy) estimates that for profits to be economically sustainable, they should be able to support a family and allow reinvestment into a business and would need to be more than £250 per hectare. For a typical farm size of 140ha, their analysis suggests that profits would need to be £34,500 per year, which is similar to the median household income for the UK. Strutt and Parker estimate that around 50% of all farms fall below this level”, says Batters. According to government figures, in 2025 income improved slightly for some farming sectors. Lucky the farmer who had signed up to an SFI agri-environment scheme, before it was abruptly closed in March of last year. Dairy farms did better for a while as the milk price improved – it has since slumped. And beef prices were good. For pig farmers and vegetable growers the bad news just kept coming.
It’s not just the weather
There are many factors that have an impact on farm profitability: fluctuations on world markets, rising input costs for energy, fertilizer, feed and labour cost and availability. And then there is the climate crisis. The amount of rain we’ve seen in the first two months of 2026 is breaking all records. “With 70% more rain than average, Northern Ireland experienced the wettest January for 149 years. Culdrose in Cornwall recorded two and a quarter times its average, while Aboyne in Aberdeenshire had nearly four times its January average of 68.9mm”, said a BBC website on February, 2nd. There will be hardly a farm where these conditions won’t be felt for the rest of the year: the lambing season is about to begin, those lambing outside will struggle to keep lambs warm and dry. Grass growth on waterlogged pastures will be poor, neither sheep nor cattle can be turned out onto muddy grassland. Poor grass growth has a knock-on effect for hay and silage production. In many cases, arable crops will have to be reseeded… and so it continues.
Drought after the rains?
According to the Met Office, last summer was the hottest on record in the UK with some areas experiencing severe drought conditions, too. It is quite possible that the summer of 2026 won’t be much different and that’s why in future more farmers will have to irrigate their crops. “Invest in water storage, build a farm pond, find and regenerate ancient farm ponds on your farm…”, is the advice from agronomists and environmentalists alike. It makes sense, and many farmers would love to do it, but apart from an often complicated planning permission process, establishing a farm pond or water storage system costs money – which farmers just don’t have. In fact, there are very few ways to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis that don’t cost money. And being unable to mitigate against drought, heat and floods will cause yield losses and reduce farm incomes even further.
City dwellers….
At the heart of the issue are policy decisions and money. But that doesn’t mean non-farmers can’t do anything beyond paying sustainable prices for farm produce. Let’s replace paved surfaces with permeable ones such as grid pavers, so that rain water can be absorbed in the soil. And let’s plant more trees in cities – in summer they can reduce temperatures in their shade by up to 6° degrees!
Marianne Landzettel is a journalist and author writing and blogging about food, farming and agricultural policies in the UK, the US, continental Europe and South Asia. She worked for the BBC World Service and German Public Radio for close to 30 years. Follow her on X at @M_Landzettel and Instagram @m.landzettel . Image used with kind consent of @M.Kunz
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