11 September 2025

You may have seen us include this research in one of our recent Digests, rounding up a bunch of reports and news. We thought this research, commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (EICU) and carried out by Grounded Research, was worth a closer look though. So here it is. Thanks to my colleague Jon Haslam for helping with this piece.

More than half of British farmers worry cost of extreme weather could stop them farming

The research surveyed a representative sample of 300 UK farmers in June 2025. It found:

➡️ Majority of  UK farmers have felt anxious or depressed after extreme weather events.

➡️​​​​​​​ Extreme weather has reduced productivity & cost money on majority of UK farms.

​​​​​​​➡️​​​​​​​ Farmers worry they won’t have right support to adapt to extreme weather events, & next generation may not be able to continue farming. 

​​​​​​​➡️​​​​​​​  Extreme weather has forced changes on farms, but there is a mix of support for further measures.

​​​​​​​➡️​​​​​​​  Only a quarter of farmers are planting trees or would consider planting trees, but incentives could increase uptake. 

​​​​​​​➡️​​​​​​​  Better market conditions & well-funded long-term government schemes would encourage more farmer action on climate and nature.

​​​​​​​➡️​​​​​​​  Farmers are less supportive of net zero targets than the general public.

Key findings in detail…

😢 Majority of  UK farmers have felt anxious or depressed after extreme weather events

• The most common extreme weather farmers had experienced in the past five years was extreme rain (86%), while 78% had suffered a drought, 54% a heatwave, and 47% a flood.
• During this extreme weather, farmers felt very anxious (34%) or somewhat anxious (58%). They also felt somewhat depressed (54%). Of course, it is worth noting that suicide is prevalent in the farming community, and these figures should be taken seriously.
• They were most concerned about losing their crops or livestock (78%), the costs of recovering (68%), what to plant because the weather was too unpredictable (52%), and that they wouldn’t make enough money to continue (43%).

📉 Extreme weather has reduced productivity & cost money on the majority of farms 

• These concerns were justified, as extreme weather led to farms reducing their productivity (87%), having lower crop and/or livestock yields (84%) and losing money (74%). Almost a third suffered complete crop/livestock losses.
• Yet only a quarter of farmers sought help (whether from peer support groups, professional advice, or environmental groups) suggesting such organisations need effective outreach strategies.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Farmers worry they won’t have right support to adapt, & whether next generation will still be able to farm

• Over half (51%) of farmers say they worry about extreme weather at least every week, with nearly a fifth (19%) worrying about it almost every day.
• They are worried about the costs of recovering from or adapting to extreme weather events (81%), losing crops and/or livestock (72%), not making enough money to continue farming (66%), and what to plant if the weather is unpredictable (62%).
• Around half worry they will not have the right support to adapt to extreme weather, and around the same figure worry about dealing with more pests and disease.
• Farmers are highly or somewhat concerned about their (80%) and the next generation’s (83%) ability to make a living from the farm given the likelihood of increasingly extreme weather linked to climate change.

⚖️ Extreme weather has forced changes on farms, but there is a mix of support for further measures

• Nonetheless, extreme weather linked to climate change has caused many farmers to change what they sow and harvest (69%), how they look after livestock (52%), and to join environmental schemes (47%).
• More than a third have had to rebuild, repair or change infrastructure on their farm, make financial changes, while a third have diversified out of farming.
• 55% of farmers agree that addressing this risk (extreme weather linked to climate change) is the priority for UK food security, even if that means changing what and how we farm.
• The most popular steps they are taking or would consider taking to improve their farm’s resilience were cover crops and other measures to improve soil health (63%) and hedgerow planting and other measures to manage soil erosion (49%), followed by planting wildflower margins for insects.

🌳 Only a quarter of farmers are planting trees or would consider planting trees, but incentives could change this 

• Even though planting trees on farmland is a major part of most climate adaptation and mitigation models (including the Climate Change Committee’s), only 27% of farmers said they were either already planting trees or would consider doing so on part of their farmland. This figure was only 9% for agroforestry.
• However, if offered ‘the right incentives’, a quarter of farmers said they would consider using their land to plant trees, while 20% said they’d consider woodland creation.
• This compares to habitat creation (60%), wind turbines (34%), and solar panels (32%).

💷 Better market conditions & well-funded long-term government schemes would encourage more farmer action on climate and nature

• At 66%, reduced financial stress via better farmgate prices topped the list of things that would encourage farmers to do more for climate and nature outcomes on their farm.
• Long-term certainty of the funding and design of government schemes came in second at 59%, while 54% said these payments would need to be higher.
• A quarter of farmers said supply chain actors, such as retailers, would need to provide more support.
• Everyone always talks about data and the fact that ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’ – but only 18% said farm monitoring of environmental measures would encourage them, and 15% said a better understanding of the target outcome.

🌐 However, farmers are less supportive of net zero targets than the general public

High levels of concern about climate change and a nearly universal experience of climate impacts do not translate into similar levels of support for net zero targets:

• Farmers are split on whether they support (40%) or oppose (37%) the target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. This compares to 66% of support from the public for net zero targets.
• They are also split on whether climate change can be stopped without the world getting to net zero (Yes 35%, No 34%) and whether policies to reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change are important to safeguard the future of British farming (Yes 42%, No 41%). This is despite it being scientifically impossible to stop climate change without the world reaching net zero.

👩🏼‍🌾 The human face of climate change impacts: Individual farmers’ stories

There are a couple of case studies in the research report; on Joanne Coates (livestock farmer, North Yorkshire) and Colin Chappell (arable grower, North Lincolnshire). We’d encourage you to read them – people, landscapes, wildlife, and communities and culture lie behind these statistics. Scroll to page 14 onwards.

👉🏼 Read the full survey here 👈🏼