How has the UK's 2025 wheat production been affected by extreme weather?

The UK has seen a total deficit in wheat production of more than 7 million tonnes between 2020 and 2024, enough to bake more than 4 billion loaves of bread, due to increasingly extreme weather conditions.

What is the National Farmers' Union saying about the impact of climate change on UK agriculture?

The National Farmers' Union says that "an increasing unpredictable climate and extreme weather is making it much harder to produce food" in the UK, and that "growing crops in the UK is increasingly challenging due to the unpredictable weather."

How are environmental groups responding to the UK's crop failures?

Greenpeace UK says that "the droughts and heavy rainfall of recent years that have decimated crop yields are fuelled by emissions from big polluters, like oil and gas companies" and that "they're the ones causing the climate crisis, yet it's farmers and ordinary people paying the price."

Home / Environment / Droughts and Downpours Deliver Second Worst Crop Yield on Record for UK

Droughts and Downpours Deliver Second Worst Crop Yield on Record for UK

9 Oct

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Summary

England sees second worst harvest on record
Extreme weather conditions devastate crop yields
Farmers struggle to adapt to escalating climate impacts

Droughts and Downpours Deliver Second Worst Crop Yield on Record for UK

According to an analysis of government figures, England has just experienced its second worst harvest on record in 2025. The country has been reeling from the effects of the hottest spring and summer on record, as well as the driest spring in more than a century, with five regions remaining in official drought.

Provisional data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) shows that crop yields have fallen significantly below earlier estimates. Wheat, barley, oats, and oilseed rape all saw lower-than-expected yields, with the 2025 harvest now ranked as the second worst on record.

This marks the second poor harvest in a row for the UK, following the heavy rains in the preceding winter that devastated key crops like wheat and oats in 2024. Experts warn that the escalating climate impacts are making it increasingly challenging for farmers to produce food, with three of the five worst harvests on record now occurring this decade.