bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Wearing large rubber boots, Nadine Mitschunas joyfully handled mature rice plants peeking through the water of her small plot growing in the fertile soil of eastern England.
Growing rice “has not been done before in the UK”, said Mitschunas, a field ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).
But as temperatures warm due to climate change, “it’s not such a crazy idea because it seems to work”, she added.
As rice grows in eastern England, lemon groves and chickpeas were also cropping up in the south.
A warmer climate and changing rainfall patterns have made planning ahead essential, and British researchers are embarking on a journey of agricultural transformation.

Mitschunas is leading research with a project that tests new crops in the flat Fens of Cambridgeshire by rewetting peatlands.
Its rich soil has facilitated high production levels, and the region now cultivates one third of England’s vegetables and 20 per cent of its potatoes and beetroots.
But soil drainage gradually impoverishes the land, posing a threat to local farmers and releasing the CO2 captured by the peatland which are important carbon sinks.
Craig and Sarah-Jane Taylor, the landowners participating in the UKCEH scheme, were conscious of the issue.
“We recognise that our soils are depleting and that we need to change to secure the future,” said Sarah-Jane Taylor, underlining the question of “water availability... and that’s only going to get worse”.
The United Kingdom, like the rest of the world, has been affected by climate change. It now has to contend with more frequent extreme weather, rising temperatures, and drier soil in some areas.

A recent UKCEH study suggested that the growth of popular crops such as wheat and strawberries would become much more difficult over the coming decades if the climate warmed by 2 degrees Celsius. If temperatures rise by 4 degrees, onion and oat crops would be hit.
On the other hand, crops such as sunflower, durum wheat, soybean, chickpeas, lemon and okra could become more viable, particularly in southwestern England or near the Scottish coast.
China and India are the world’s leading producers of rice.
And in the Fens, Mitschunas has tested nine rice varieties regularly grown in the United States, the Philippines, Macedonia and Japan - four of them show promise, particularly one that originates from Colombia.
Once the grains germinated in a laboratory, the seedlings were planted in water in June, and harvesting began in early October.
“I am not eating my own rice yet,” the ecologist joked. But such a scenario could become a reality within 10 years.
“The suitable climate for rice is moving more northwards” in Europe, she said, pointing to successful initiatives in the Netherlands and Germany.
Mitschunas is also testing everything from lettuce and celery to pumpkins and strawberries - and even aromatic plants.
Along with crop experimentation, her project aims to regenerate peatlands and improve the country’s CO2-capturing capacities.
She is not the only British researcher testing new crops.
At the University of Southampton in southern England, professor of biological sciences Mark Chapman is leading a study on different crops, including chickpea cultivation.
“If we wait until 20 or 30 years, and then realise that we can’t grow wheat... like we always have done, we’ve then got (a) problem,” he said.
He emphasised the need to “smooth the transition” by prioritising which future crops to grow and ensuring consumers are ready to change their habits.
“I think we’re at that point where we just need to try more things,” he said. “We need to get farmers involved, who are actually going to plant the crops.”
The pioneers in the Fens, Sarah-Jane and Craig Taylor, have noted other farmers’ growing interest in the project following their initial surprise.
“Once upon a time potatoes and sugar beet weren’t grown here and now they’re one of the main crops in the area,” said Sarah-Jane Taylor.
“So why couldn’t rice potentially be an option here? And why shouldn’t we look at it?”


Cambodia says Chen Zhi’s extradition to China ‘not the end’ of scam centre crackdown

Li Ka-shing’s CK Infrastructure gets nod to sell train leasing firm UK Rails

Hong Kong corporate governance activist David Webb dies at 60

BBC moves to dismiss Trump’s US$10 billion lawsuit over Capitol riot documentary

Britain

Growing rice in the UK ‘not so crazy’ as climate warms

Dr Nadine Mitschunas is leading research with a project that tests new crops. Photo: AFP

Dr Nadine Mitschunas on rice-growing: ‘It’s not such a crazy idea because it seems to work’. Phot: Reuters

A crop of various rice species being grown on a trial site. Photo: AFP

First climate ‘tipping point’ crossed, scientists warn ahead of Cop30 in Brazil

A sea turtle swimming among dead coral in Baa Atoll in Maldives in 2023. File photo: AFP

In 2024, forest fires ravaged millions of hectares of the Brazilian Amazon. File photo: AFP

Carbon dioxide levels hit record last year, causing more extreme weather

Steam rises from the cooling towers of a power plant in Peitz, Germany, in March. Photo: dpa

An illegal fire burns in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil in September 2024. Photo: AFP

China, India and Brazil set to steer global climate change agenda at Cop30

US President Donald Trump holds up a sign reading “Trump Digs Coal” in 2017, the year he first pulled out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

A ministerial preparatory meeting in Brazil, on October 13 ahead of the Cop30 climate summit. Photo: Reuters

A herder cools off his cattle in a river during a hot day in Peshawar, Pakistan, last month. Pakistan is among the countries likely to be worst hit by heatwaves, research shows. Photo: EPA

Activists demand climate action along a 7-metre inflatable capybara outside a Cop30 venue in Brasília on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

A solar farm in western China’s Qinghai province in July. China achieved its wind and solar capacity target six years ahead of schedule last year. Photo: AP

News

World

Europe

British researchers are testing different crops as rising temperatures reshape the nation’s agricultural landscape


British researchers are testing different crops as rising temperatures reshape the nation’s agricultural landscape.


Growing rice in the UK ‘not so crazy’ as climate warms

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}British researchers are testing different crops as rising temperatures reshape the nation’s agricultural landscape

British researchers are testing different crops as rising temperatures reshape the nation’s agricultural landscape