Farming in East Anglia
About this region
NFU East Anglia covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Top of the crops
The region is best known for its cereal crops, with farmers growing more than a quarter of England's wheat and barley.
A crop of quality wheat
But it is a major region for horticulture as well, cultivating everything from peas and beans to apples, strawberries, salad crops, flowers and shrubs.
Farmers in East Anglia also harvest more than half the country's entire sugar beet crop - mainly in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. And almost a third of England's potato crop is grown here.
Animal magic
Britain's pig and poultry farms are centred largely on East Anglia - not surprisingly as so much of the grain needed for animal feed is grown here.
Free range hens enjoying the sunshine
Laying hens produce about 2.2 million eggs every day and our region's farmers supply a quarter of England's table chicken.
We also have the second largest number of pigs in England, 1.2 million animals on around 1500 farms.
Our sheep, beef and dairy herds are small compared with other regions but they are important to the farming 'balance' of the region and their grazing plays a vital role in looking after the landscape.
Growing jobs for the region
Farming is at the centre of a £3 billion food and food processing industry in East Anglia.
Almost 55,000 people work directly in farming, and many more jobs depend on it.
Harvesting pumpkins on a Cambridgeshire farm
Despite increased mechanisation there are still many jobs that have to be done by hand - such as harvesting pumpkins shown here on a Cambridgeshire farm.
The largest agricultural workforce is in Norfolk, where around 16,000 people still work on farms.
Caring for the countryside
East Anglia's beautiful countryside has been shaped by generations of farming, and farmers continue to play a key role in looking after it.
Norfolk farmland showing wildlife-friendly field margins
There are 45,000 hectares of woodland on East Anglian farms, enough to cover a city the size of Cambridge five times over.
Farmers are also backing new environmental schemes. By June 2000 around 1400 farmers had signed up for the Countryside Stewardship scheme, agreeing to manage land in an environmentally beneficial way while improving public access.
These agreements cover 18,000 hectares of land and include 4151km of wildlife-friendly field margins.
Farming for the future
Farmers in East Anglia are poised to play a major role in meeting future demands for green energy.
They already supply the fuel that keeps the straw-fired power station in Cambridgeshire running but they are looking to do more by growing crops for biofuels.
Oilseed rape can be used to make biodiesel
Land the size of an international football pitch can grow enough crops each harvest to keep the average family car on the road for three years.
In the future, farmers hope to grow crops including wheat, sugar beet and oilseed rape to turn into environmentally-friendly biofuels.
