First rice crop harvested after record

By Faye Mayern

The UK's first rice crop is being harvested after a record-breaking summer.

Newly created paddy fields in the Cambridgeshire Fens have become home to nine rice varieties - including risotto, basmati and sushi.

The crops were planted in the spring and have grown over this year's hottest summer since records began in 1884.

The Fens is an area of flat, low-lying agricultural land that produces crops worth around $1.5 billion per year and accounts for a third of the UK's fresh vegetables.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is carrying out trials of a range of crops for food and bioenergy on rewetted peat to see if they can be grown in waterlogged conditions.