Food production must be a priority in a long-term strategy review of flood risks in Broadland, warned farmers.

Environment Agency officers briefed a joint meeting with members of Stalham Farmers’ Club and the East Norfolk branch of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) about the Broadland Futures Initiative (BFI).

The BFI aims to forge an agreed policy or framework by mid-2026, which will outline measures for Broadland to adapt to climate change and rising sea levels over the next 100 years.

With about 60pc of the wider Broadland below sea level and the constant challenges to inland and coastal defences, an agreed policy was vital. Ultimately, local councils will be the decision-makers in determining priorities.

A number of farmers in the 50-strong audience at Rossi’s, in North Walsham, highlighted the importance of food production in an area including prime agricultural land.

William Sands, chairman of Stalham Farmers’ Club, said the BFI review almost seemed to ignore food production. It was echoed by a number of speakers, who said that the country’s best land produced top-quality potato crops and field vegetables.

With rising global demand for food and threats to the climate, it must make sense to enable farmers to supply a market of almost 70 million consumers with home-grown, quality food, said other farmers.

Nick Deane, a former NFU county chairman, said one arm of the Environment Agency was actively preventing farmers from storing surplus winter rainfall in reservoirs for irrigating crops, while another “silo” had a contradictory strategy on water.

It was again emphasised that the BFI must take account of broader environmental and economic factors and not just concentrate on developing a policy for an area of about 50,000 acres in Broadland.

This was particularly important as an increasingly restrictive approach had been taken with reducing or even eliminating abstraction licences enabling farmers to store “surplus” winter water for summer irrigation.