Agriculture

Farmers are likely to be among those soonest affected by climate change, and will face both threats and opportunities. Threats will include:

• More frequent and more prolonged droughts.
• Changes in rainfall distribution.
• Loss of crops and livestock as a result of extreme weather events.
• Increased and changing pests and diseases.
• Increased risk of heat stress in livestock farming. For example, chickens can only tolerate a relatively narrow temperature range.

In December 2007, 69% of farmers surveyed in England by the Farming Futures project expect to be affected by climate change in the next ten years and 74% are already taking action to combat it. Follow the link above to find out how.

However, climate change is also providing some new opportunities. Farmers in Staffordshire are already diversifying and getting involved in renewable energy. The Eccleshall Biomass Project is the UK’s first successful bio-energy power plant. It runs partly on Miscanthus (sometimes known as elephant grass) supplied by the local farmer owned company BiEcc and produces enough energy to power the town of Eccleshall (or 2,600 average households). To date, BiEcc have planted around 850 hectares of Miscanthus, successfully adding diversification to over 50 farms and bringing over £223,000 into the area in DEFRA Energy Crops Scheme Grants.

For further information on how climate change will affect our farmers, take a look at this excellent summary from the BBC Weather Centre.