Farmers have slammed a “devastating” hosepipe ban enforced with “no warning” that may put food security at risk. The Environment Agency imposed an abstraction ban on around 240 growers in the Ely Ouse catchment in Norfolk on July 3.

The ban, which was enforced overnight, prevents farmers from irrigating crops despite no other restrictions being put in place in the area. President of the National Farming Union (NFU) Tom Bradshaw said it puts food crops at “real risk” if farmers are not granted access to water. He said Food Security Minister Daniel Zeicher “didn’t seem aware” of the issue when he brought it up with him at the Great Yorkshire Show.

Speaking about the meeting in an NFU video yesterday, he said: “This was an opportunity to raise current issues around drought, which are starting to have a real impact. 

“In Norfolk overnight, they’ve withdrawn abstraction licences for surface water abstraction, no warning and no consultation, putting those food crops at real risk if they cannot have access to the water that they need.

“We made sure this was on the minister’s agenda and he didn’t seem aware of it before we raised it with him.”

Tim Young, a farmer from near Thetford, expressed his fury at the situation.

He told The Telegraph: “I stand in front of what’s probably the best crop I’ve grown, and to know it might just break even is devastating.

“We managed by spreading abstraction across more days, but now with a complete ban, the risk is very real. If the Government is serious about food security, reservoirs need to be built.”

According to the NFU website, total irrigation bans will only be used as a last resort by the Environment Agency, which will always “seek to achieve as much as possible through voluntary savings before imposing formal restrictions”.

However, this ban was reportedly imposed with “no consultation” and will be in place until further notice. The Environment Agency said it will be reviewed on a daily basis.

In Yorkshire and the South East,  customers were given a week’s notice before restrictions came into force. 

Abstraction bans, known as Section 57 restrictions, were widely used in the early 1990s in parts of the East of England and in 2006, but they have rarely been used in the last ten years.