Farmers try to cope with drought and prevent losses Farmers
across the country are taking measures to reduce their water
consumption and avoid compulsory bans on water use, following
one of the driest two-year periods on record. Matthew King is a
farm manager from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. For the past two-
and-a-half years, he has been managing 600 hectares of root
crops, including sugar beet, potatoes, and onions. Mr King is
part of the Lark Valley Group, which has been implementing
voluntary water-saving measures. He says that the group has
taken 20% voluntary cuts to their irrigation licences. In their
case, this amounts to roughly the same volume of water needed to
fill four Olympic-size swimming pools. The group has also
reduced their onion crop by about 40%, and have grown their
parsnip crop in conjunction with another farmers' group. Mr King
says: "We've gone for an earlier parsnip crop which requires
less water. They'll be harvested in July, rather than
December".Easy target He describes the Lark Va