Farmers in the Peterborough area are keeping their fingers crossed for a bumper harvest despite being plagued by drought and disease.
Harvesting machinery has been at work day and night at scores of farms for weeks as farmers rush to bring in their crops at its peak and get it sent to market.
But extremes of drought and rain over the year have been ideal conditions for nurturing pests and disease that have promptly attacked crops.
Brian Finnerty, regional communications adviser for the East Anglia branch of the National Farmers’ Union in Peterborough, said: “The extreme weather conditions have allowed pests and disease to thrive and farmers have faced extra cost and work to combat them.
“But farmers have been working very hard to produce good quality food.
“It is still early days, but the picture is looking mixed. Some have done well and others not so well.
“The yield and quality of some of the wheat harvests have been disappointing but the oil seed rape harvest has held up very well.”
“The poor weather means fewer people have chosen to eat fruit and salads which has reduced demand for these products.”
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