Farming in the western half of England should be a good deal easier than in the East in coming decades, if projections about drought come true.

Last year we saw real problems with the harvest in both East Anglia and the Home Counties as a result of a lack of water, and this winter has witnessed yet another shortage of the rainfall the East needs to keep going with its traditional agricultural expectations. Indeed rainfall in the region in the past three months has been lower than it was before the Great Drought of 36 years ago – the driest on record in some parts.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, before heading off to Birmingham for the NFU Conference, staged a "drought summit" on Monday for Government agencies, water companies, environmental groups and the Met Office, to formulate plans.

I was working in the East Midlands in 1976 and well remember the near-panic measures taken by the old water boards to counter the problems. There was even a fantastic scheme, vastly expensive and impractical, to get some rivers to flow "backwards"; but the real knock-on effect was the construction by large numbers of farmers of their own reservoirs, which have proved their worth time and again.

The reverse-flow river scheme was all part of a national water-grid concept, now likely to face a renewal, with, at its essence, water being transported eastward at enormous expense from our own drought-free climes. It's probably all too far fetched these days, though climate change is going to continue effecting the way agriculture ticks in this country.

Whether East or West we (or at least our grandchildren) can all be expecting to grow crops in different ways, plant crops that currently only grow in Southern Europe, and raise animals in alternative conditions to those employed at present.