A furious farmer has blasted litter louts after glass fragments found in his oat crop caused him to lose a £16,000 sale.

Mike Barker says the growing problem of discarded rubbish in the countryside now means sampling processes are needed to ensure the food chain is not contaminated.

The 49-year-old has hit out after small pieces of glass were found in a sample of oats by a buyer, which the farmer says could have only come from his fields.

Mr Barker farms 400 acres at Chalkpit Farm, Bekesbourne, and his wife Amanda runs Essentially Hops.

He said: “The problem has definitely got worse in recent years and we are picking up all sorts of rubbish.

"The fragments of glass found in my oats caused a crop worth £16,000 to be rejected, which has considerable financial implications..." - Mike Barker

“Among other arable crops, we grow oats for breakfast cereals and I suspect more contaminated material risk is getting into the food chain via crops than we realise, with plastic, metal and glass getting hoovered up by combine harvesters.

“This month, the fragments of glass found in my oats caused a crop worth £16,000 to be rejected, which has considerable financial implications.

“I now have a meeting with Grain Harvesters at Wingham about my contract being cancelled.”

Mr Barker says he is constantly having to pick up rubbish in his fields.

He said: “We found an old television in one of our fields the other day, along with the usual dumped mattresses and fridges we often find.

“Someone, perhaps a shift worker, appears to chuck his beer can out of his window of his car into our field pretty much the same place every day.

“I just don’t understand why people can’t empty the rubbish out of their cars when they get home.

“The trouble is it can be hard to spot the smaller stuff when the crops have grown up and cover it.

“We now have stringent sampling processes in place to ensure as best we can that crops are not contaminated.

“But the risk could be reduced if everyone took responsibility for their litter in the countryside and simply took it home with them, rather than simply selfishly dropping it.”