Suffolk farmers are looking at whether they can store much-needed irrigation water underground in natural aquifers as an alternative to costly farm reservoirs.
Reservoirs can take hundreds of thousands of pounds - if not millions - to build.
Farmers want to see whether it's possible to store water underground safely at scale at times when it is plentiful and have launched a Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) trial at Bucklesham, near Ipswich.
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The project is being led by farmers Will Jolly and Bruce Kerr, and is supported by Framlingham-based Sustainable Water Solutions (SWS) and Felixstowe Hydrocycle Ltd.
The trial needs to overcome some very strict Environment Agency standards aimed at ensuring aquifers aren't contaminated.
East Suffolk Water Abstractors Group (ESWAG) was behind the hugely successful and pioneering Felixstowe Hydrocycle scheme - led by group manager John Patrick.
This involved pumping fresh drainage water to farm reservoirs before it is emptied into the sea.
ESWAG held an open day at the end of June showing farmers how MAR worked in practice at the trial site.
Surplus water from rivers or other sources is channelled into a shallow lagoon which feeds a reverse land drainage system.
This supplements the natural recharge of the aquifers.
ESWAG chairman Doug Inglis said with the UK climate heading towards what it is currently in mid-France, farmers needed to look at irrigation solutions.
"Climate change is really upon us," he said. "If the predictions are right and we are going to have a climate like the Ardèche by 2070 then we really have to change."
There is pressure for abstraction licences to be removed or reduced, he added.
"Without that we'll have no food production. Businesses will have a tremendous amount of money invested in irrigation that won't be viable."
Mark Andrews of Sustainable Water Solutions said it was the only agriculture-based Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) set up in the country - with a handful of others run by water companies.
"In Europe, there is MAR going on, but it is mostly focused on the recharge of the aquifer for environmental benefits," he said.
"Our focus is to test the idea of using MAR as an alternative to a traditional overground reservoir.
"It is approximately 80% cheaper and has no above-ground footprint, with the fields above remaining viable for cultivation."
They have proven the concept works and can be regulated, because they already have both a discharge consent and an abstraction licence to run it at a small scale of up to 40,000 cubic metres a year, he said.
"However, to make it commercially viable we need to get permission to store a minimum of 120,000 cubic metres in the ground," he said.
Mr Patrick said the scheme was still at its trial phase.
"There's plenty of room in our natural aquifers," he added.
As part of the trial the water is tested for more than 300 compounds to make sure it is not polluting.
There are some traces of chemicals being detected from highways and from pesticides that are washed into the drains, he said.
But they have a "sensible" relationship with the Environment Agency and are progressing the scheme, he added.
The scheme is funded from Innovate UK's ADOPT fund.
If successful, the MAR will form part of the assets owned by Felixstowe Hydrocycle members.
Those behind the scheme are in the process of applying to extend the volumes of water available within the Hydrocycle and MAR could be part of the solution for storing that additional water.
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