The distinctive yellow fields of rape grown to produce oilseed, a cash crop that has become valuable to UK agriculture in recent years.

---

Oilseed rape production really took off in the UK in the 1970s and now productionhas reached around 1 million tonnes of oilseed rape each year, which is worth £595 million to the UK economy. There are 400,000 hectares of oilseed rape in the UK, and the average yield per hectare is tonnes. The plants, with startlingly yellow flowers and a pungent smell are members of the mustard family. Rapeseed oil growing in the fields helps to fertilise the soil by naturally adding nitrogen to it. This helps to improve the yield of the crops that are grown afterwards, such as wheat. Also known as a ‘break crop’ which gives cereal crops a ‘break’ from the cycle of weeds, pests and disease that build up in the soil.

---

Size: 5152px × 3438px
Location: Wittersham Road Railway Station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, near Rolvenden, Sussex, UK
Photo credit: © patrick nairne / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: agricultural, agriculture, brassica, break, bucolic, cash, countryside, crop, crops, england, english, family, farming, field, fields, flowers, growing, kingdom, mustard, napus, oil-seed, oilseed, oleifers, pungent, rapa, rape, rapeseed, rural, smell, subsp., uk, united, yellow