Income from farming in England plummeted by 19% last year after floods meant harvesting many crops was impossible.

Farmers have called for more support from the government as the climate breaks down, meaning agricultural businesses are no longer able to count on mild UK weather and increasingly face drought and floods.

Farms also contributed less to England’s economy in 2023 at £10bn, a fall of £1bn or 8.7% compared with 2022. Farmers’ total income from agriculture in England was £4.5bn, down £1.1bn or 19.0% compared with 2022.

The drop in total income was driven by a large decrease in crop outputs, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Output, crops that came off farms to be sold, was £9.9bn, down £1.5bn or 13.1% compared with 2022. This was caused by a mixture of a crash in prices of crops such as wheat, combined with poor yields.

According to the Met Office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell in England from October 2022 to March 2024, more than in any 18-month period since the organisation started collecting comparable data in 1836. Scientists have said climate breakdown is likely to cause more intense periods of rain in the UK.

Martin Lines, the chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network and an arable farmer, said: “Farm income has significantly decreased due to the impacts of climate change on weather and market price fluctuations. Farmers find themselves at a disadvantage due to market forces, even though there’s plenty of money in the system.

“The income that farmers receive from food production has declined, while food retailers continue to make record profits. Without adapting to a changing climate, the future of UK farmers, businesses, and food security could be at risk.”

Farmers will soon no longer get a flat rate of government support, because the EU-derived basic payments scheme is being phased out. Instead, English farms have to sign up to environmental schemes to get government funding.

The basic payments used to tide businesses over during years of bad weather and low commodity prices, and there is uncertainty in the sector because the new Labour government has not committed to the £2.4bn a year budget for environment land management schemes that the Tories put in place.

Joe Evans, the vice-president of the Country Land and Business Association, said: “Farmers’ incomes are continuing to fall after decades of economic neglect. Labour has put economic growth at the heart of its agenda, and the countryside will be key to delivering this.

“We’ve issued Labour with a programme for government to deliver a new era of industry cooperation. This includes committing to an annual £4bn agricultural budget, reforming planning laws to help farmers diversify income, and proposals for ministerial-led, cross-departmental working groups to identify and remove barriers to growth.

“The rural economy is 19% less productive than the national average, closing this gap is key to our future prosperity. It’s time we had a government that matches the ambition of the countryside.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “The new government is committed to protecting farms and rural communities from the dangers of flooding. That is why we will launch a flood resilience taskforce to turbocharge the delivery of flood defences, drainage systems and natural flood management schemes across the country. We will go further to boost Britain’s food security, protecting farmers from being undercut in trade deals, cut energy bills by switching on GB Energy and use the government’s purchasing power to back British produce.”

Source: theguardian.com