First rice crop harvested after record-breaking summer

By Faye Mayern

The UK's first rice crop is being harvested after a record-breaking summer.

Newly created paddy fields in the Cambridgeshire Fens have become home to nine rice varieties - including risotto, basmati and sushi.

The crops were planted in the spring and have grown over this year's hottest summer since records began in 1884.

The Fens is an area of flat, low-lying agricultural land that produces crops worth around $1.5 billion per year and accounts for a third of the UK's fresh vegetables.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is carrying out trials of a range of crops for food and bioenergy on rewetted peat to see if they can be grown in waterlogged conditions.

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Professor Richard Pywell, the lead UKCEH scientist on the project, said: “By its very nature, this is an experiment and so it will be interesting to see how the traditional produce and novel crops like rice perform on the rewetted peat soils alongside other land use options such as biomass production and habitat for nature.

"We hope to be monitoring the site over the coming years to assess the long-term viability and resilience of these land use options to a changing climate.

“Our detailed measurements of the rewetted peats will include greenhouse gas emissions, carbon stocks, water use, crop yield and the impacts on nature.

"These will help farmers and policymakers decide on the best path to take for the Cambridgeshire Fens for livelihoods, the environment and nature.”

Craig and Sarah-Jane Taylor farm the land near Ely where the trials are taking place.

Sarah added: “Our Fenland soils are some of the most productive in the country but are very susceptible to the changing climate and we need to adapt the crops we grow and how we grow them.

“The trials are critical to understanding the practicalities of how we might go about large-scale rewetting of peat, including its impact on yields and farm income, as well as the potential wider benefits for wildlife and flood prevention.”