President criticises developing agriculture

"The issue of the conceptual development of our agriculture has been neglected for a long time," Slovak President Andrej Kiska told a news conference following his meeting with representatives of the Agricultural and Food Administration Council on Monday. He expressed his sorrow that this issue was only being raised after a young man, a journalist who wrote about fraud in the farming sector in eastern Slovakia, had been murdered. Kiska said that along with Ireland, Slovakia is one of the most rural countries in Europe, as more than 80 percent of its population live in rural areas. "On the other hand, Slovakia is deep below the EU average in terms of employment in the farming sector, i.e. we have a lot of people living in rural areas, but only a few people employed in agriculture, only a little over 2 percent. The EU average is close to 5 percent. In Poland the figure is 10 percent. These figures are catastrophic," stated the Slovak president. According to him, the state needs to adopt a strategy to tackle continuing problems in this area. "Only livestock and special plant production can return or at least maintain employment in rural areas," stated the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK) chairman Emil Macho. He said that representatives of the Agricultural and Food Administration Council had discussed the contribution made by farmers to Slovakia's rural areas with the president.