Water restrictions threaten to curtail British potato production

Potato growers could be forced to scale back production by more than 30% if the government pushes through proposals to limit water abstraction for irrigation, says a major study. Environment Agency plans to restrict licences so growers can abstract only the average annual amount of water used during 2003-2009 fail to take into account how farmers use water, according to the study by Cranfield University. The study, commissioned by the NFU, comes at a time when the Environment Agency is due to decide how to make abstraction licences which are time-limited compliant with the requirements of European Union environmental rules. More