I'd appreciate some advice on why my sweetcorn have done so badly this
year. The cobs are about half size with kernels fully developed on the
lower half only. The tassels went black around the beginning of the
month and they don't seem to have been developing any further since
then.

Is this down to poor pollination? I don't see why this should be, as I
have about 40 plants, planted in a block with roughly 8 inch spacing
between plants.

Or could it be lack of water? I haven't bothered watering them much as
I've been too busy watering everything else in the garden and assumed
that sweetcorn wouldn't mind dry conditions. After all there are
fields all around full of healthy looking plants and I don't think
they get any irrigation. What are the farmers doing right that I'm
doing wrong?

Robert