Farm produces Britain’s first rice crop in fight against erosion
At Oxwillow Farm near Ely in Cambridgeshire, Craig Taylor is preparing to harvest what is thought to be Britain’s first crop of rice.
He believes that his four small paddy fields, containing risotto, sushi and basmati rice, may hold the answer to a problem that has bedevilled his family for generations.
For 400 years, ever since the Cambridgeshire Fens were drained for agriculture, the area’s rich, peaty soil has been slowly disappearing into thin air. Blown by the wind, the peat has released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change.
Over three metres of soil has disappeared, and less than 60cm now remains, threatening the viability of an area that produces over a third of the country’s vegetables.
“My family has always been aware of the soils degrading,” Taylor said. “We’re at the point where there aren’t many years left of it.”
To find ways to conserve the remaining soil, Taylor teamed up with scientists at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Together they are figuring out what crops can be grown in the Fens if the soil is re-wetted to stop it blowing away.
On 20 acres of Taylor’s land they have raised the water table to just 10cm below the surface, far too high for wheat, but low enough for lettuce, celery and pumpkins. And in the paddy fields they have let the water come to the surface, to grow nine varieties of rice. The rice has grown under a few inches of water, protecting it from pests, and will be drained before harvest.
Nine varieties of rice are being grown
GWYNDAF HUGHES/BBC
While this year’s long, hot summer has been bad for many of Taylor’s crops, reducing his wheat yield and shrivelling his sugar beat, it has provided a preview of future growing conditions in which rice might thrive.
“The fact that we’re now able to grow rice in the UK tells you something” he said. “It’s definitely changing and we’ve got to keep up with it [climate change], because it will become more and more challenging to grow some of the crops we grow now. Soon we might have to irrigate our wheat fields.”
If the government is to achieve its goal of halting the country’s contribution to climate change by 2050, it will need to work out what to do about the carbon emissions coming from the Cambridgeshire Fens, and that could involve re-wetting part of them. The area’s peaty soils are estimated to be adding about 2.6 million tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere annually, about as much as half a million cars. Last year the country emitted 371 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The rice was propagated in a greenhouse in Oxfordshire and planted in Taylor’s fields in May, but next year’s crop will be grown outside from the beginning. If the trial goes well, Taylor envisages he could be growing rice on “hectares and hectares” in coming years. The Co-op is collaborating in the trial and Taylor said other major supermarkets have expressed interest in it.
• Inside the Essex ‘drought room’ testing crops for climate change
He said that raising the water table has also proved a boon for wildlife, with ducks, starlings and snipes coming to nest in the marshy fields. Previously he would pump rainwater off the land and into the sea to keep it dry for arable crops. Having stopped doing so to raise the water table, he can now pump some water into the River Ouse, supplying drinking water to Cambridge, where water scarcity has held up the development of thousands of homes.
The rice was propagated in a greenhouse in Oxfordshire and planted in Craig and Sarah Taylor’s fields
GWYNDAF HUGHES/BBC
“We can hold water back and store it, and then either use it for the benefit of nature and farming, or for drinking water. This is about bringing everyone together, farmers and scientists, to find solutions and make a difference.”