UK Summer Rainfall Insights for Agriculture and Food Production

The UKSRI project focuses on the vulnerabilities in the British food system from mismatches between supply and demand. As the expansion of the horticultural industry combined with climate change makes irrigation management and scheduling increasingly challenging to feed a growing population, the project provides reliable summer rainfall insights to inform decisions to mitigate potential crop losses and reduce food waste. It aims at improving in land-use efficiency and competitiveness for the horticultural industry, at lowering dependency on fresh produce imports, and at reducing food waste in the field, together with the UK's contribution to climate change. Main users are large-scale growers notably within the salad and potato industries. The summer rainfall system mainly exploits ECMWF Re-Analyses data (ERA-40, ERA-interim and ERA-5) and EC Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) seasonal forecast model data in order to improve the accuracy of UK seasonal rainfall prediction.