‘Totally reliant on Mother Nature’: UK drought raises water security fears

London, United Kingdom – In a wheat field near High Wycombe in the rolling English countryside, Alex Nelms watched the harvest on his farm die in a matter of days.His crop had looked strong until the first heatwave came in May, when temperatures surpassed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) just as his milling wheat entered its grain-fill phase, the critical weeks when the plant fattens its kernels.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Sudan’s date palm trees under threat from drought and wildfireslist 2 of 4How wildfires are scorching France’s wine industrylist 3 of 4El Nino: A phenomenon supercharged by climate changelist 4 of 4Dead fish fill vanishing river as drought grips Indonesiaend of list“It just killed everything stone dead,” he told Al Jazeera. “Everything was finished really early, and when we were sort of full of optimism and hope, it was scuppered almost overnight.”Nelms farms just over 2,000 acres (809 hectares) of arable land in south Buckinghamshire, on a business his grandparents founded in 1955. His uncle, who has worked the farm for more than 40 years, has just suffered the worst harvest of his career.Last month, the Department for Environment, Fo...