Saltwater isn’t something most people associate with English farmland. But in parts of eastern England, it’s becoming a growing problem, and not just for crops, but for farm incomes too.

In our new study focusing on Greater Lincolnshire, one of the UK’s most productive agricultural areas, we found that rising sea levels and more frequent flooding are pushing salt onto some of the country’s best farmland.

This isn’t just about crops struggling to grow. The real story is an economic one. Salt in the soil is changing which crops actually make money, and in some cases wiping out profits entirely.

Most studies on salinity look at what happens in the field. For example, how plants respond to increasing salt concentrations, how yields fall and how soils degrade.

We have been researching the problem from a farmer’s perspective. What happens to their income? How does risk change? And crucially, what can farmers grow instead when conditions shift?

To answer these questions, we combined maps........

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