Heatwaves spur efforts to find drought-resistant crops

6 hours ago

Alex Jamesin Edgmond, Shropshire

Dr Andrew Beacham and Dr Ashley Garrison are searching for crops which can cope better with hot weather

BBC/ Alex James Two men are stood inside a plastic greenhouse in front of dying lettuce plants that have bags over the top of them. The man on the left is wearing glasses and a green t-shirt with white writing, he has brown hair and a beard. The man on the right has short blond hair and is wearing a grey hoodie with black writing. — Dr Andrew Beacham and Dr Ashley Garrison are searching for crops which can cope better with hot weather

After the long, hot dry summer which saw many parts of England under drought conditions, researches say they are looking at coming up with crops for the future that can withstand such stressful weather conditions.

Harper Adams University in Shropshire is working with the University of Warwick Crop Centre on the issue, as part of the government-funded Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN).

For Jim Monaghan, Professor of Crop Science: "We are growing crops in the most challenging conditions for generations."

July 2026 was the driest for England and Wales since records began and the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" that 2027 is the hottest year on record globally.

"Both the lack of rainfall and abnormally high temperatures are detrimental to crop production, because these stressful growing conditions reduce yields and quality," Monaghan said.

To safeguard UK food security, experts believe new varieties of crops, able to better withstand these extremes of heat, need to be created.

Dr Andrew Beacham is the VeGIN lead at Harper Adams and said they were taking "beneficial features" from certain plant varieties that cope better in extreme weather conditions.

Older varieties are being examined by researchers along with what they call "wild relatives" of common vegetables.

They include lettuces which may have better heat tolerances or can cope with flooding, and breeding them with conventional vegetables.

This summer's weather meant that farmers, Beacham said, were struggling with their existing varieties "to produce the same yield and quality as they have in previous years.

"We've seen things like increased reliance on imports of vegetables because UK producers have had lower yields."

"That increases our reliance on imported food and reduces food security in the UK."

Some of these lettuce plants were exposed to 40C heat to test their ability to tolerate it

BBC/ Alex James A series of budding green lettuce plants in brown pots stretch out on a shelf in a silver containment room — Some of these lettuce plants were exposed to 40C heat to test their ability to tolerate it

If they can develop varieties that are better equipped to deal with challenging and changing weather conditions in the UK it will help ease stress on farmers, Dr Ashley Garrison, another VeGIN researcher, said.

"Such research can play a key role in developing stress resilient sustainable crop varieties and helping arable farming to adapt during climate change," Garrison added.

"For customers in shops, if you can have improved yields that can help to keep prices down because if you have food shortages, of course, prices go up.

"If we can breed improved varieties [of UK vegetables], which I believe we can, then yeah, I think there should definitely be hope for growing crops for the future."