Geography

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK is an island off the west coast of Europe and has a total land area of 24.36 Mha. The country is divided roughly into two main areas: lowland Britain and highland Britain. Lowland Britain and most of Northern Ireland is less than 300 m above the sea level. This includes some 70,000 ha of prime farmland in eastern England which is below sea level.

Population and land use

The population is about 66.8 Million (Population Reference Bureau, 2019), with over 80% living in towns. For many centuries most of the land was owned as estates ranging in size from a few hundred hectares upwards and comprised farms of varying sizes let out to tenants. Due to social change and heavy estate duties, farms were sold and many were bought by the tenants. About half the farms today are owner occupied. However, the current trend is towards merging farms into larger units, particularly for arable farming. Of the total area of 24 Mha, about 7 Mha is arable land, 11 Mha is permanent grassland, 2 Mha is forest land and the remaining 4 Mha is either built on or wasteland.

Climate and rainfall

The climate is temperate and equitable. The prevailing winds are south-westerly and the climate is largely determined by the eastern Atlantic, although during the winter months easterly winds may bring a cold, dry, continental type of weather. The average range of temperature between winter and summer varies from 7^o to 12^oC, being highest inland in the eastern part of England. During a normal summer, the temperature occasionally rises above 27^oC; winter temperatures below -7^oC are rare. The average summer (April - September) potential evapotranspiration ranges from about 230 mm in the Scottish highlands to 500 mm in East Anglia. The average annual rainfall over the country is about 1150 mm, ranging from over 4,000 mm in a few points in the hills of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to 500 mm in East Anglia east and south-east England.

Food and agriculture

The total area of agricultural holdings is about 9.34 Mha, of which a third is arable and the rest is mostly grassland. Agriculture uses 69% of the country’s land area, employs 1.5% of the nation’s workforce (476,000 people) and contributes 0.6% to gross value added. The UK produces less than 60% of food requirements, the rest is imported. Arable farming is concentrated in the midlands and eastern and southern England and livestock in the south west, Wales, and Scotland. There are 212,000 farm holdings, which vary widely in size. Crops commonly grown include cereals, chiefly wheat, oats and barley; root vegetables, chiefly potatoes and sugar beet; pulse crops, such as beans and peas; summer salad crops and winter vegetables; forage crops such as vetches, rape, and kale; fruit, particularly apples, pears, and strawberries; and hay for animal feed.

Irrigation and drainage

Irrigation is supplementary and practised only on individual private farms. There are no government run irrigation schemes. Some 90% of outdoor irrigation is spray. Trickle systems are used mainly for protected cropping and some outdoor high value crops such as fruit where there is little cultivation and the pipes can remain in place for some years. Demand for irrigation is forecast to increase substantially, particularly if climate change leads to warmer and drier summers and the demand for home grown produce increases. Much of the demand is driven by supermarkets, whose customers want high quality vegetables and fruit. Fresh vegetable and fruit production is now an international business and UK farmers must compete with European and other countries on a commercial basis. There are no government subsidies such as those received by cereal producers. Farmers who wish to irrigate using spray equipment must have an abstraction licence from the Environment Agency. Although trickle irrigation is not licenced this will change in the near future as the government introduces legislation to bring it under control. The irrigated cropped area varies because of variations in seasonal rainfall area but on average it is about 0.15 Mha. Many of the most productive agricultural areas lie in flood plains. Major drainage systems, managed by Internal Drainage Boards and set up to control water levels and flooding also support local field drainage.

Water resources management

The quantity of water licensed for abstraction in England and Wales for spray irrigation in 1995 was 289 Mm³ (approximately 45% direct from surface, 40% from groundwater and 15% from surface water via reservoirs). In addition, some 3% of the total demand for irrigation comes from public water supply. Spray irrigation is concentrated in England, in the midlands, east, and south east. In an average year, only 2% of the total water abstracted is used for spray irrigation compared to 51% for public supply. However, in the drier eastern region, on a warm summer day, abstraction for spray irrigation can exceed the demand for public water supply. In line with the EU Water Framework Directive, river water quality has improved over the last few decades as a result of improvements in effluent quality from sewage treatment works run by private water companies and regulated by the Environment Agency. The quality of most rivers is now adequate for irrigation and attention is now focused on controlling to diffuse sources of pollution, particularly from the use of pesticides and fertilizers on farms. Control of such pollutants is essential to ensure that groundwater resources are not polluted.

Water policies

The Environment Agency was established in 1995 to ‘protect and improve the environment for current and future generations’. Amongst other responsibilities the Agency licenses water abstraction and has powers to protect people and property in low-lying areas from flooding. The initiative to irrigate crops rests with individual farming enterprises and is a commercial decision. The government at times provides grants for constructing on-farm reservoirs. Farmers who wish to irrigate using spray equipment must have a licence from the Environment Agency. At present, trickle irrigation is not licensable, although the Government plans to introduce legislation to bring it under control. In most areas where irrigation is practised the Agency is no longer issuing licences for summer surface water and groundwater abstraction because the limited resources are already committed to other users and/or ecological requirements of streams and wetlands. In these areas expansion of irrigation can only be achieved by abstracting winter water flows for storage in a reservoir for use in the irrigation season.

ICID and National Committee

The UK joined ICID in 1951and established the British National Committee of ICID (IWF/ICID.UK). The British National Committee hosted the 5^th European Regional Conference in Cambridge in 1967; the 22^nd IEC in London in 1971; the 31^st IEC in London in 1980; the 48^th IEC and 18^th European Regional Conference in Oxford in 1997. Mr. E.A. G. Johnson (1958-1961); Mr. P.A. Scott (1969-1972); Mr. W.R. Rangeley (1975-1978); Mr. John Hennessy (1986-1989); Mr. Peter S. Lee (1997-2000); Dr. Ragab Ragab (2010-2013), and Mr Ian Makin (2015-2018) were the Vice Presidents of ICID in the past. Mr. W.R. Rangeley (1981-1984), Mr. John Hennessy (1990-1993) and Mr. Peter S. Lee (2005-2008) were the Presidents of ICID in the past.