MAR 11, 2014: The wettest winter on record, and the devastating floods, have been a wake-up call. Smallholders need to adapt to our changing climate. This is an issue that Tim Tyne addresses in our April issue…
MAR 11, 2014: The wettest winter on record, and the devastating floods, have been a wake-up call. Smallholders need to adapt to our changing climate. This is an issue that Tim Tyne addresses in our April issue…Is it wet weather that’s topical at the moment, or is it more a case of our inability to cope with it? I don’t mean our personal inability – generally we’re pretty good at keeping a stiff upper lip, in true British fashion, and most folk have the mental fortitude to shrug off disasters and simply get on with their daily lives. What I’m talking about is the inadequacy of our infrastructure. The situation for landowners, farmers and smallholders in Somerset and elsewhere in the south west of England has been dire and, even here, halfway up a mountainside, where the water usually just runs straight off, we’re feeling the strain. We can’t change what’s happening to the weather, but we can change our lifestyles in an attempt to lessen the negative human influence on climate change, and we can change our infrastructure, to make it more suited to the new circumstances in which we find ourselves. For smallholders and farmers, this may mean making major adjustments to the way we maintain our land and manage our livestock, and arable producers will undoubtedly have to re-consider their choice of crops. See Tim’s full article in our April issue.Photo. Tim Tyne clears a blocked drain
