Rural economic development in the post-agricultural era: policy recommendations

Present rural economies of developed countries are no more dominated by agriculture. However, in policies of rural economic development the position of farming remains very strong due to the persisiting productivist thinking. Consequently, the tools of such policies are strongly related to agriculture, despite its minor contribution to rural economies of developed countries. The aim of this article is to offer recommendations for more efficient policies of rural economic development which are not based only on agriculture. These policy recommendations for European or national, regional and local authorities are key research findings of the project Non-agricultural and non-tourism economic industries in rural peripheries of the Visegrad countries funded by the International Visegrad Fund.