Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) agriculture and (b) horticulture businesses have access to adequate water for food production.

The Government is committed to strong domestic food production and the Plan for Water sets out the actions we are taking to secure water supplies, including for the agriculture and horticulture sectors. The Government and the Environment Agency are working with the sectors to help them improve the resilience of water supplies for the future.

The package of support includes improvements to water resources planning and investment in infrastructure, for example by aiming to increase the amount of water stored by the agriculture and horticulture sectors to support food production and protect the water environment. This includes £20 million of grants to help farmers with the costs of building on-farm water reservoirs and irrigation equipment, through two rounds of the Water Management Grant under the Farming Investment Fund.