Drought declared in England farming area

LONDON — A drought was declared Friday in a major wheat-producing region of Britain after one of the driest springs on record.

The drought affected parts of east Anglia, in eastern England — a region known as Britain’s “bread basket” because of the amount of grains grown there. Other parts of southern England and Wales were also close to a drought, Britain’s Environment Agency said.

Britain is the EU’s No. 3 producer of wheat. It wasn’t immediately clear if the drought would have an immediate impact on food prices, but the National Farmers Union said the dry weather had hit East Anglia’s cereal produces badly. It said fruit and vegetable farmers were also struggling and livestock farmers were finding it hard to find grazing grounds for their animals.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said she will organize a meeting over the next few days to discuss what action needs to be taken.

Some farmers have already been asked to irrigate their fields at night to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation, and the Environment Agency will ask industrial plants and water companies to use less water where possible.

Britain’s national weather agency says 2011 has had the second driest spring across England and Wales since 1910, and the driest spring in East Anglia for 101 years.

A drought throughout much of northern Europe this spring is starting to hurt upcoming harvests and efforts to bring food prices down.

World food prices have reached a historic peak this year, raising fears of a repeat of the global food emergency that led to violence and unrest in many countries in 2008.

The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has said June harvests will be key in gauging whether prices will calm down or inch up further.

The drought in Europe also comes at a bad time since many national budgets are still stretched by the financial crisis and helping out farmers at short notice does not come easy.