“We’re running out of water,” said Singh-Watson, who founded the company about 30 years ago.
“You can’t grow shallow-rooting, quick-growing salad crops like spinach, rocket, and mizuna in today’s climate without irrigation.
“If we want these crops grown in the UK, we need reservoirs on farms and it’s got to be cheaper and quicker to get the necessary permits.”
He said three of the four on-farm reservoirs had now run dry, with plans for a fifth still “years off”.
“Planning permission went through reasonably quickly, but getting the necessary abstraction licences from the Environment Agency has proved to be very exacting, very expensive and very slow,” he added.
The government said it was committed to strong domestic food production and ensuring agricultural water supplies remained secure to allow this.