6th October 2026
For farmers adaptation may involve building new reservoirs on their land to store more water – this is what they did on the Elveden Estate but despite adding a 500,000 cubic metres reservoir to their exit 700,000 cubic metres storage capacity, they still reached a point if no more water for further irrigation. (1)
To help fill reservoirs, farmers may need new permits to allow them to abstract water from rivers during the wetter winter months – rather than doing so in the hotter dryer summer months. Reservoirs can also host floating solar panels! (2)
Some farmers are experimenting with restoring wetlands -such as water meadows, creating or restoring ponds, and re-wiggling rivers to keep more water on their land when it rains which both helps reduce flooding in the winter and keeping ground water levels higher in the summer.(3)
Another approach is to grow different crops that are more drought resistant, or to use different farming methods such as planting shade crops, sylviculture, smart irrigation techniques etc. Another consideration is to shift growing crops dependent on large amounts of water to a wetter region of the country. (4)
We as consumers can be part of the change: be willing to buy and eat different fruits and vegetables; eating more home grown vegetables (rather than relying on the produce of other drought challenged countries); eating less meat and dairy – both being large consumers of water.
(1) https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/machinery/drainage-irrigation/elveden-reservoir-water-security/
(3) https://www.lancswt.org.uk/blog/what-wetter-farming
