A NORTH Yorkshire tenant farmer who is facing up to £130,000 losses from his ruined potato crop has pleaded for help from the Agriculture Minister.

Mr Robert Tesseyman, who farms at Staveley, near Knaresborough, has harvested only a tenth of his crop this season.

About 110 acres of potatoes are rotting in the ground. His fields are so waterlogged that the machinery needed to harvest them sinks into the mud.

Mr Tesseyman, who is also the NFU West Riding county vice-chairman, spoke to Agriculture Minister Mr Nick Brown at a House of Commons reception last week.

He said he could not afford to plant potatoes this spring because of his huge losses. He has also only managed to plant less than a 20th of the cereals he would normally have drilled in autumn.

"I said Dutch potato growers were compensated when they had wet weather in 1998, yet we are expected to finance next season's crops which we can't afford to do," he said.

"If we aren't careful we will hand our potato markets to our European competitors."

He added: "The majority of potato growers in Yorkshire and Durham have substantial quantities of potatoes still in the ground, in some cases up to 100pc. The chances of salvaging any potatoes are diminishing fast. I've looked at my potatoes today and most of the crop has been destroyed by a combination of wet soil and frosty conditions."

Mr Marcus Walker, field manager for the British Potato Council, said about 450 potato growers in Yorkshire and Durham had been significantly affected and they had lost about 120,000 tonnes of potatoes, worth an estimated £11.5m.

He said: "This is the worst winter I have ever seen from a crop loss and farming point of view. This has been a dreadful season and the sooner it is over the better."

The NFU continues to ask the government to compensate farmers who have suffered exceptional hardship brought about by the flooding and wet conditions. Farmers are not able to insure potato crops.