Paddy fields aren't the only way to grow rice, you can do rows and flood soil alongside, you can do upland style dry fields rice planting.

I guess the point of the experiment was with climate and increasing flooded landscape (like the fens?) But the risk would be salt incursion as much as anything else.

If it's climate (temperature) alone, it didn't need paddy fields. I think a lot of Australian rice is irrigated but not full flooded fields, or a reduced flood compared to traditional approaches. More amenable to massive fields and a water storage system. Recently saw a cotton farm at St George and the (huge!) fields are groomed with a laser level to control for irrigation flow, I think they do the same for rice, when it makes sense.

Ely (a few miles south of this project) used to be an island with a large eel fishing industry, from which it derives it's name. The Fens were drained in the 17th century with help from Dutch engineers, and I believe much of the area is now below sea level; the river Ouse is raised above the surrounding land with embankments. I've ran past some of the pumping stations on the Roman lodes myself: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/125065713

I wonder what the risk is of rising sea levels to this project?

Rice crop requires climate, soil, water, fertilizers, good seeds and machinery. In India, the second crop for rice is grown through the winter which is not much warmer than British summer. Also England has black soils with less sand, which are good for rice. Looks like all conditions are met.

> We often think of rice as a tropical plant, but it does grow in colder climates.

..? Is Japan and Korea tropical for the British?

The BBC seems to love to ram in a climate change narrative in every possible hole it can find. While it's a serious problem, trying to fit it into every story just starts to make me skeptical of every climate change related things they report

It probably has a lot less to do with air temperature and more to do with amount of precipitation and humidity. You also don't have bamboo growing in Europe or the Mediterranean. It's not because it's not hot enough in Italy or Egypt

Just look at some other BBC article and they explain there is a impending water shortage in Britain.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj939kpnvx8o