Rice grown in Britain for first time
First ever crop was planted in spring and grown over the course a record hot summer
Rice has been grown in Britain for the first time following a record hot summer.
The country’s first ever crop is set to be picked from newly created paddy fields a few miles north of Ely in Cambridgeshire.
The nine rice varieties – which include plants from Brazil, Colombia, and the Philippines – were planted in spring and grown over the course of the hottest summer since records began in 1884.
Nadine Mitschunas, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who has been leading the study, said that when she tells people she’s growing rice in the UK, they assume she’s joking.
“Nobody has tried this before, but with climate change, we have crops that 10 years ago, we wouldn’t have thought would be viable,” she told the BBC. “In 10 years time, rice could be a completely perfect crop for us.”
Professor Richard Pywell, also from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said Britain is currently right at the edge of rice’s range and it would be a business risk currently for farmers to plant it commercially.
However, according to research, if the climate continues to warm, rice could be viably grown in England at scale.
The trial paddies are in the middle of the Fens, where over a billion pounds’ worth of vegetables are grown. The rich peaty soil was under water until it started to be drained in the 17th century. The gradual drying out causes carbon dioxide to leak into the atmosphere and flooding it would reverse this process.
Britain has seen widescale loss of wetland habitat, with some 90pc of it gone in the past century. However, conservationists are enthusiastic about the prospect of more paddy fields across the UK.
Mary Colwell, a leading curlew conservationist said that Curlew – a once common bird that has disappeared from most of the UK – use rice fields for foraging outside of the breeding season and on migration as stopovers. They have been recorded in Mediterranean rice systems, especially where shallow water and soft soils expose invertebrates they can eat.
Graham Denny, an East Anglian farmer and conservationist, said that the current state of farming in Britain meant he is making almost nothing at the moment from his wheat.
However, he is sceptical about introducing non-native crops such as rice to England.
He said: “Farmers are looking at almost everything at the moment. But what are you going to do when 10,000 geese land on those paddy fields?”
He added that there are “all these things that’s great in a photoshoot, but are they thought through?”.
Although the rice is now ready to harvest, it will be some years yet before it hits supermarket shelves.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
