EU agriculture ministers have commenced day two of a two-day meeting in Slovenia, aimed at strengthening urban-rural dialogue and reversing the negative trends affecting rural areas.
Depopulation, population ageing, and the decline in the attractiveness of rural areas as places to live and work in due to deteriorating infrastructure and poor connectivity have all been identified as negative aspects of rural life in Europe.
European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, is attending today’s meeting in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia, where the ministers are discussing the role of rural areas in society, and the challenges agriculture is facing in this process.
Also on today’s schedule are identifying trends that will define agriculture in the future and exchanging views on how individual EU member states view urban-rural coexistence, and how they are addressing the key challenges of this coexistence.
They will also touch on future policies to address the rural-urban divide and gap, with the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) playing an important role in this regard, and explore possible synergies with other (particularly European) policies and mechanisms.
Yesterday, day one, the ministers saw examples of good practice in connecting urban and rural areas.
They visited the Grm Agricultural School and Biotechnical Gymnasium, one of the five units of the Grm Novo mesto – Centre of Biotechnics and Tourism.
The centre features a school estate and laboratories where students receive practical training, carry out research and various exercises in the fields of fruit growing, viticulture, animal husbandry and more.
The visit was followed by a tour of Evrosad, Slovenia’s leading fruit-producing company, which works with nature to produce apples, pears, peaches and strawberries of the highest quality.
The company was established in 1995 and now produces fruit on nearly 600ha of farmland.