England Faces Second Lowest Harvest on Record as Climate and Policy Hit Farmers

England has endured its second-worst harvest since records began in 1984, amplifying serious concerns over both the resilience and future of British agriculture. New government data confirms that farmers reaped just 16.2 million tonnes of cereals and oilseeds this year, surpassed only by the catastrophic 2020 harvest of 16.1 million tonnes. The figures, compiled by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, highlight how extreme weather, exhaustion from policy changes, and volatile input costs are combining to destabilise farming nationwide.

Recent years have dealt repeated blows to the sector, with three of the five poorest harvests on record all falling within the past decade. Tom Lancaster of the ECIU commented that consistent poor yields reflect an escalation of climate impacts that British farmers are increasingly unable to withstand. Flooding and heavy rains dominated last year’s harvest, while this year’s yields were hammered by drought, underscoring an alarming trend of weather unpredictability.

Jamie Burrows of the National Farmers Union drew attention to how challenging it has become to grow crops under such erratic conditions. He said unpredictable weather patterns are making food production far less reliable, threatening both rural livelihoods and national food security.

British farmers now face what some within the sector are calling a “triple whammy”: poor yields, inflationary input costs, and weaker grain prices. At the same time, changes to government support schemes, interruptions to the sustainable farming incentive, and proposals for family farm taxation have piled further pressure on the industry. Jake Fiennes, a senior conservation leader in Norfolk, described morale in farming communities as “the lowest I’ve ever seen,” adding that uncertainty over long-term support is damaging confidence and sparking concerns for the future of family farms.

The crisis is prompting tangible upheaval, with a marked rise in farm dispersal sales and farmers leaving the sector altogether. According to farmers in Suffolk and Norfolk, colleagues are abandoning holdings large and small as the economic realities become intolerable. Rural pages in auction publications, once three pages in length, now stretch to nine with dispersal sales.

Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, has pointed squarely at new taxes and the abrupt pause in the SFI scheme as key drivers of what she describes as a “food and farming emergency,” warning that the combination of policy instability and climate impact spells “financial devastation” for many farmers and threatens the affordability of food nationwide. In response, DEFRA has reiterated its commitment to a record-setting budget for nature-friendly farming and emphasised practical support for resilience and adaptation, although industry leaders argue that more decisive interventions are required to safeguard this vital sector.