More than 150 farmers and growers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire will be able to resume abstraction after the NFU raised their case with the Environment Agency.
Current restrictions will be lifted for approximately 150 of the 240 farmers impacted by a cessation order announced last week.
The NFU said it will work to find solutions for members who have not had restrictions lifted, and will continue calls for the authorities to work with the farming community to deliver long-term solutions to water issues.
“This was a huge and very immediate concern for many of our members, who are already having great challenges due to the extreme dry weather we have been experiencing,” said NFU vice president Rachel Hallos.
Read more: Hot weather drives earlier harvest and raises wildfire risk
“It is vital, moving forward, that we continue to work with the government and the EA to find long-term solutions to the increasing extreme weather incidents we are experiencing in this country – this problem will not just go away.”
Hallos added that the current situation was “horrendous” for farmers and that it was adding “enormous” costs from which some businesses will never be able to recover.
“This will threaten our national food security,” said Hallos. “We need to fix this because we could be in this situation again.”
This comes as South East Water imposed a hosepipe ban impacting 1.4 million people across Kent and Sussex, in addition to those already in place elsewhere.
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