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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of drought on farmers in the South West; and what steps he is taking to help mitigate that impact.

Drought has led to an early harvest with a reduction in crop quality and yields. Livestock farmers are facing a growing risk with forage, winter feed supplies and consequently buying additional food or selling animals to reduce pressure on supplies.

Measures to support farmers include:

• Allowing short term options to improve access to water outside of abstraction licence conditions

• Supporting the establishment of Water Abstractor Groups to enable sharing of water rights and for the development of jointly owned infrastructure. Funding has been made available to the West Country Water and Environment to help create Water Abstractor Groups

• Local Resource Option screening studies are supporting farmers to collaborate on schemes such as multi-farm reservoirs, water trading, with one project in the South West.

An updated prospect report will be published this autumn to inform farmers of the water resources situation in order to improve resilience and planning for next year.