Rural community policies needed

IT will be more important than ever in the years ahead to have policies which meet the needs of rural areas as a whole, according to European Union Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

Speaking in Kaunas, Lithuania, she said farms and farmers play a pivotal role in many rural communities.

“We must continue to support farmers in their efforts to modernise their holdings. But there are other needs, too. We must ensure that the rural economies and communities in which farming is embedded remain viable.