Efforts to increase rural competitiveness

Projects aimed at rural development

The Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Sophocles Aletraris stated today that "in the difficult times that the countryside is going through due to the great competition in the common market and the lifting of restrictions on imports, the efforts of the rural people to stay in their villages become even more difficult »…

In his greeting at the event "Myrianthousis Kallos. "This world is small and big", at the Kalopanagiotis Cultural Center, Mr. Aletraris said that "our goal is to study ways to increase this competitiveness to the extent that it will gradually increase the income of our farmers by strengthening their motivation to stay in their villages ".

The Minister of Agriculture said that "we hope that such projects will help alleviate these problems and that is why we encourage and support them".

Referring to the beauty of the valley of northern Marathas, he said that "with its picturesque villages it is unique throughout the year".

He stated that "the Community Council and the Cultural Center Agios Ioannis Lampadistis together with the Department of Forests of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, in order to promote natural beauties, collaborated and built within the Rural Development Program 2007-2013 of Nature Kalopanagiotis ".

He added that this program was co-financed by EU funds and the state budget under measure 2.6 - Preservation and Improvement of the Community and Economic Role of Forests - Creation of new and upgrading of existing Nature Study Paths.

"The cost for this project amounts to 47.502 euros and the works include, among others, the opening of a path, the construction of information signs, benches, small signs for plants and signs
observation ", said Mr. Aletraris.

In his greeting, the Minister of Agriculture further stated that "the visitor can at the beginning or at the end of the route visit the Monastery of Lampadisti with the unique frescoes and the tomb of the Saint, see the Venetian bridge and the thermal springs, be guided to the Icon and the Museum of the National Martyr, Metropolitan of Kyrenia, Lavrenti, to worship Panagia Theoskepasti and to rest under the age-old passage with the bell tower ".

The route also offers alternating images of natural beauty as it passes through small valleys with natural vegetation, wildflowers, shrubs and trees with the myriad colors and aromas of the Myrianthus land, said the Minister of Agriculture.