CHANGES in farming practices over the past 20 years may have contributed to
up to a fifth of the severe flooding seen across England and Wales over the past
fortnight.
“Farmers used to plough their fields and then leave them bare through the
winter, so water collected on the land, filling furrows and infiltrating into
the aquifers beneath,” says Geoff Mance, director of water management at
Britain’s Environment Agency. “Now they mostly plant winter cereals, sometimes
without ploughing at all.” Rainwater drains straight off the resulting smooth
surface. “We have a huge acceleration in the speed that rainwater flows into…
