Farming News - DEFRA: National Drought Group meeting
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DEFRA: National Drought Group meeting
An extra £50 million for Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2026 Window 2, taking the total budget for SFI26 to £290 million to help more farmers access support. Increased SFI uptake will help farmers to adapt to the risk of future droughts.
Funding up to £15million to build on-farm reservoirs, helping farmers to better store more water when it rains.
Temporary adjustments to Environmental Land Management (ELM) agreements, so farmers impacted by drought can continue to receive payments and take practical steps to protect livestock, crops, and land.
A scaled-up response to the bluetongue outbreak. The Animal & Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) laboratory is undertaking sample testing to meet the increasing demand and published a heat map to help farmers understand the risks in their area.
Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) have been working closely with vaccine manufacturers to put in place processes for bringing in additional supplies to Great Britain.
In July, South East Water launched a new policy and register to provide dedicated support for farmers and commercial livestock owners across parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.
This will help the company deliver tailored water support, such as emergency bottled water or storage tanks, to farms to protect animals in the event of an unplanned outage.
The summer saw not only low rainfall but also an increased demand for water by the public, agriculture, and industry. Water use increased by as much as 30% on the hottest days. Despite the recent rain, the Environment Agency has again cautioned it will take months of sustained wet weather for water resources to recover.
The east and south east of England has received just over half of its typical rainfall in the last six months. These areas rely mainly on groundwater for their public water supply – and groundwater recharge takes many months for the rain to reach through the hardened soils to replenish reserves deep underground. Therefore, the autumn and winter rainfall will be important for these regions.
The Met Office is forecasting the second half of September will see a return to drier conditions, particularly in the south where the rain is needed the most. Overall, El Nino is set to be put the UK at greater risk of a wet, stormy autumn.
- September has seen 33% of its average monthly rainfall to date.
- It has been slightly drier in the east, north east and central England and wetter in the north west. 27% of average rainfall fell across the north east and 45% in the north west.
- The rain has helped river flows, with only 15% now classed as notably low or exceptionally low – an improvement from last week.
- Groundwater storage and reservoir levels continue their expected seasonal decline. 39% of reservoirs or reservoir groups are less than half full. England reservoir storage is 56.9% - 19.7% below average for the time of year.
- Ten water companies in England have imposed restrictions, impacting 30 million customers. They are: Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Bristol Water, Cambridge Water, Essex & Suffolk Water, Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, South West Water and Wessex Water.
- Southern Water has applied for two Drought Orders. The first is to maintain normal abstraction rates from the River Test even during low flows and the second is for a non-essential use ban. These are both under consideration by Defra.
- The Environment Agency has applied to Defra for a Drought Order to protect the health of the River Severn. Natural Resources Wales has also applied to the Welsh Government for a related Drought Order. The requests include reducing the release from the Clywedog reservoir to slow down the rate its reserves are being used and an initial 5% reduction on abstractions from the River Severn by Severn Trent Water, South Staffordshire Water, Bristol Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy. These are under consideration.
- South East Water has applied to the Environment Agency for a Drought Permit to reduce releases from Ardingly reservoir into the River Ouse to protect public water supplies. This is under consideration.
- Water companies continue to follow their drought plans and, subject to rainfall, the EA expects to receive further applications for Drought Permits in the near future.