BERNARD Maquis's cattle would normally be grazing in the lush green pastures of the Limousin region in central France at this time of year. Instead, they are eating hay intended for the winter after months of drought that has turned the fields yellow.  He is wondering whether it might be better to sell his cows at a reduced price rather find himself without fodder by the end of the autumn. "I'm starting to sleep badly," he said.

Mr Maquis is not alone. With Northern Europe facing its worst drought since 1976, politicians in the West are expecting protests from farmers, consumer discontent and a strain on budgets.  Third World nations are braced for riots as Europe's heat wave creates a rise in food prices and drives millions deeper into poverty.

"We are in a situation of crisis and of crisis management," said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Ecology Minister.

Meteorologists say that Northern Europe has had 50 per cent less rain than normal over the past two months, while temperatures have been 4C higher than usual.

In France, water restrictions have been implemented across more than half of the country and the drought is already comparable to 1976, when a heat wave wrecked the annual harvest.

Germany has had twice as many hours of sunshine as it would normally expect in the spring. Some German regions have had just 5 per cent of their standard rainfall. "We desperately need rain," said Andrea Adams, spokeswoman for the Farmers' Association in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. She said that the wheat was yellow, the sugar beet had barely grown at all and the rye was "curling up and dying".

With breeders across France beginning to sell animals they cannot feed, protests are under way. In southwest France, farmers blocked roads to a motorway for several hours last week after they failed to obtain temporary permission to take water from rivers.

With droughts also reported in China and southern US states, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN fears rioting in poor countries. Officials said that the global price of cereals had risen 71 per cent over the past 12 months, and while Moscow will lift a ban on exports of wheat, barley, rye, corn and flour introduced during the heat wave last summer, it may provide only temporary relief.