Peers have urged the government to roll out flood funds promised at the start of the year, as farmers are 'still suffering' from the impact of the relentless rain.
During a recent House of Lords debate, the government was warned to urgently roll funding out as farming businesses and livelihoods 'are under threat'.
Peers also highlighted the need for farmers to be compensated for their role in flood management and raised the importance of a long-term strategy for water.
The government announced an expansion to the Farming Recovery Fund in May to help more farms recover after devastating flooding across the country over the winter.
The funding was first announced in January and the industry has worked with Defra to help develop the offer, which has included feeding in examples of the challenges faced by farmers.
Payments for the expanded offer were expected to be made this summer, but many are yet to receive the support, with no announcements expected now until after the government announces its autumn budget on 30 October.
In response to the debate and funding delays, NFU vice president Rachel Hallos said farming businesses across the country were 'still suffering' from the impact of extreme weather.
She said: “Thousands of acres of farmland have been completely saturated and unusable, and we’ve just finished an incredibly difficult harvest with huge variations in yield and quality.”
During the House of Lords debate, Alan Smith, who is the Bishop of St Albans, warned that the time pressures 'are critical' for farming businesses.
He said: "We need to remember where the food on our table comes from, who is on the ground doing so much of the work to restore our natural habitats and move towards net zero, and of course playing an essential role in protecting our homes against flooding.”
The Bishop drew attention to the fact the Environment Agency has a £34 million deficit in its maintenance budget.
He said government "must ensure that capital funding is in place for flood defences to ensure that basic maintenance is conducted on drainage and flood defence systems."
Baroness Bakewell said she was grateful to the NFU for briefings on this subject and highlighted the union's efforts in making multiple requests to Defra on the expanded Farming Recovery Fund.
She added: “It really is time that those farmers whose land is used to store flood water on a continual year-on-year basis should have some financial recompense for the loss of the use of that land.
"If protecting and preventing homes, villages and towns from flooding is not a public good then I’m not sure what is.”
Defra Minister Baroness Hayman said the Farming Minister was “working very hard to look at how we can make the ELM scheme work for farmers and work for things like flood mitigation, work for food security”.
The news comes as Met Office provisional figures report that September 2024 is set to be the wettest September on record for some counties.
Ten English counties experienced their wettest September on record and for Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire, it was the wettest calendar month the counties have experienced, in a series dating back to 1836.
England saw 95% more rainfall than its September average, with Wales experiencing 39% more.
NFU vice president Rachel Hallos said the industry was starting to see 'more regular, and expensive, flooding events.'
“With further heavy rain leaving more fields waterlogged, arable farmers are once again concerned about getting crops in the ground for next season.
“We cannot keep getting stuck in this cycle – we simply must invest in our water management systems."
