England is growing rice for the first time in a small trial in Cambridgeshire, a sign that climate change is pushing crops once considered tropical into parts of Britain that were historically too cool and wet for them.
England Rice Trial in Cambridgeshire
The experiment matters well beyond an unusual harvest. If warming continues, it could change what British farms grow, how they manage water, and how much carbon the country’s food system emits — a sector that already accounts for 38% of UK greenhouse-gas emissions, with agriculture alone contributing 11.7%.
The pilot, led by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology with local landowners Craig and Sarah Taylor, spans four small flooded plots near Ely in eastern England. Nadine Mitschunas, described as the country’s first and only rice grower, said the crop is thriving after what the Met Office called the hottest English summer on record in 2025, with data going back to 1884.
Researchers say the crop is still on the edge of what is commercially viable in Britain. But the broader logic is clear: as average temperatures rise, rice could become a realistic option in a country that has never produced it before, potentially within a decade if warming reaches the 2C-4C range above pre-industrial levels that scientists say remains plausible.
For investors and policymakers, the bigger story is not domestic rice sales but land use. England’s eastern Fens supply about a third of the country’s vegetables, worth roughly 1.2 billion pounds a year, yet drainage of peat soils has made that land a major carbon source, responsible for as much as 3% of national greenhouse-gas emissions.
Flooding those fields for rice and other water-tolerant crops could help keep carbon locked in wet peat, even though rice itself emits methane. Early results from the trial suggest methane output is still far below the emissions avoided by preventing peat breakdown, which gives the model appeal for both climate policy and farm economics.
That has drawn attention from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is looking for ways to protect food supply as extreme weather disrupts traditional crop yields. The practical test now is whether England can turn a one-off novelty into a repeatable system that supports farmers, cuts emissions and eventually puts UK-grown rice on supermarket shelves.
| Entity | Gains | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| UKCEH and trial farmers | ▲Proof of concept | ▼Scientific risk |
| British climate planners | ▲New low-carbon land use | ▼Slow policy delivery |
| Local consumers | ▲Potential UK-grown rice | ▼Higher near-term uncertainty |
| Traditional peat-drainage agriculture | ▲— | ▼Carbon-heavy model |
