YORKSHIRE and the North-East should be declared an official disaster area, a farmers' meeting was told last week.

The call came from a farmer - Mr John Sturdy - who said his land had not been flooded but was still water-logged and totally unworkable.

"We have £40,000 worth of potatoes and £40,000 worth of sugar beet still in the ground," he told an NFU flood crisis meeting in York.

"I think there is enough evidence to declare this area a disaster zone."

He won the loud support of more than 100 farmers who crowded into the regional office.

There was dissatisfaction about the management - or lack of management - of rivers by the authorities.

A call for rivers to be dredged, as they used to be, won widespread support.

Mr Sturdy, from Old Malton, said it should be remembered that rivers are drains first and foremost.

"The people who live along them are the endangered species not the water rats and voles," he said.

Mr Tim Bennett, vice president of the National Farmers Union, was sure "aggressive discussions" with the Environment Agency would be held nationally and locally.

There was concern expressed that some conservation schemes such as tree planting and reed beds on river banks had added to the flooding problem.

Mr Bennett said the NFU was anxious to receive details from individual members as to how their farms have been affected by flooding or the wet weather.

They needed to know details of crops still in the ground, whether they had been able to drill, and estimated values and losses.

The NFU wants to put a case for weather aid from MAFF which would have to be approved by the European Commission so it was vital that as accurate a picture as possible could be given.

"There is the case of loss of income but also in terms of the damage," he said.

Mr Bennett told of an organic farm which flood waters had covered in top soil from a conventional farm. It may lose its organic status.

He had seen one farm where a field was covered with the contents of the freezers from a Somerfield Store, and another farm whose land was contaminated by oil.

"We have to try and assess the cost and see whether there is a possibility of getting some extra aid," he said, "Support payments also need to be paid quickly because cash flow is very important at this time."

Mr David Collier, NFU regional technical adviser, spoke about possible legal action if negligence could be proved.

He described an instance in County Durham where a farmer had complained some months ago when river water flooded his land through a badger sett in an embankment.

The Environment Agency had been asked to get a licence to move the sett from MAFF. Although the papers were alleged to have been sent the Agency had not actually applied and the land had again been flooded via the sett.

Mr Marcus Walker, regional representative for the British Potato Council, said nationally 18pc - 64,000 acres - of potatoes were still in the ground.

The crop in Yorkshire and the North-East was the worst affected by flooding and water-logged fields.

In Yorkshire and Durham 24pc - 9,600 acres - of the total area planted was still in the ground and some 30,000 tonnes of sugar beet