On 29 June, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Mārtiņš Cimermanis, Chair of the Board, Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre, in the Riga Castle to discuss current rural development issues.
One of the main topics discussed by officials during the meeting was sustainable rural development of Latvia, green production of safe and healthy food, sustainability education and transfer of Latvian experience to other countries. According to President Levits, ‘to make our rural development policy more sustainable, we need to improve support programmes for small and medium sized farmers, and thus bring people back to countryside and bring more biologically farmed products to the shelves of our markets’.
There are signs that society is ready and expects a broader discussion on these issues, remarked Mr Cimermanis.