A radical overhaul of food production is needed urgently or the UK will face food shortages, a farming expert from Kent has warned.

Dr Howard Lee, who runs the sustainable land management course at Hadlow College near Tonbridge, said that in as little as five years we were heading for “serious food scares”.

 “We are going to be face some potential food shortages and we really need to start doing something pretty radical,” he said.

 “The degree I’m running produces graduates energised to make some phenomenal changes. We need to overall food production systems.”

He said the UK needed to improve its self-sufficiency in terms of domestic food production.

 “We need to be more self-sufficient but actually levels have been dropping over the years,” he said.

 “Most British politicians are beginning to realise this really is a crisis. It is one of the many problems we face but one of the most critical.

 “In a few years time imports will be affected by all sorts of issues. For example there is very little wheat surplus on the world market.

 “The fruit and veg market will find various problems because they are transported by diesel and the price of oil is going back up and it is expected to keep going up.

 “This will impact on the feasibility of moving produce from Europe. We are heading for some pretty serious food scares.”

Dr Lee’s warnings come as the Government published its UK Climate Prediction 2009, which forecasts that unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced average temperatures will rise by 3-5C by the 2080s. Rainfall will reduce by 50 per cent in the summer and increase by 30 per cent in the winter. There will be more summer droughts and more flash floods.

The report predicts that the damage already done by emission will mean that temperatures are 2C warmer by 2040. And the South East will warm more than other parts of the country.

Dr Lee said: “Climate change and freaky weather is very bad news for agriculture.”

He said it could impact on the types of crops we produce such as sunflowers and Soya beans being grown in Kent.

 “It is the basic food crops I’m more concerned about. We will not have some glorious Mediterranean climate it will be hot but there will be more flash floods,” he said.

To cope with a reduced availability of fertilisers and pesticides, which rely on minerals and fossil fuels, would mean that the huge cereal farms of eastern England would have to reintroduce livestock so that their natural waste would make it easier to build up soil fertility.

He said that British farmers would have to adapt but that not enough was being done to advise and support them to reduce their reliance on farming ‘inputs’ such as pesticides and fertilisers.

Dr Lee said that people in urban areas, which is 80 per cent of the population, would suffer from the affects of food shortages first.

 “I do not think there is enough being done”, he said. “The Mayor of London’s food guru is pushing for roof top production in London but that needs to be rolled out much more aggressively.

 “Areas around towns and cities need to be redeveloped as market gardens to grow fruit and veg and keep chickens to feed people in cities.”

Climate change and a growing population globally, which is putting on land for housing and infrastructure, means that less is suitable or available for food production.

Dr Lee believes that the answer is to educate people, he said: “My course is training people to deal with these issues by working with community groups, alternative energy programmes and alternative ways of growing food.

 “We need to train people to tackle these issues but we need to be radical now because for far too long we have been drifting along and not changing anything. We have not been doing enough and now it is reaching crisis point.”