22/09/26 Potato yields, Pulse growing
Potato yields down; growing Carlin Peas in Carmarthenshire.
UK potato growers could be facing losses of almost 拢170 million because of this summer鈥檚 heatwaves and drought. That鈥檚 according to new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a not-for-profit organisation which looks at the impacts of climate change.
Add that to crop losses across Europe鈥檚 main potato growing countries - Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands - and we could be looking at 3.5 million tonnes fewer potatoes getting into the shops.
We're looking at pulses this week. They're the dried edible seeds of plants in the legume family, they grow in pods and we鈥檙e talking things like beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils. Here in the UK, they鈥檝e generally been grown as what鈥檚 called a 鈥榖reak crop鈥� by arable farmers to put nitrogen back into the soil, and then used for making animal feed. But growing pulses for human consumption comes with the prospect of bigger rewards. Today, we're in Carmarthenshire where they're carrying out trials growing Carlin Peas on a county council owned farm.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Sally Challoner.
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