With Brexit as well as multiple other demands on the EU budget post-2020, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will have to build support well beyond its traditional farming base to ensure its continued sustainability.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan robustly defends how CAP has delivered over the past half century but that alone will not be sufficient to ensure continued support.

The traditionally strong farming lobby across the EU is now more than matched by environmental lobbies and the key to a sustainable CAP, never mind sustainable agriculture, will be having a policy that delivers for everyone.

Evidence for this line of thinking with the commissioner is found in his commitment to the Cork 2.0 Declaration from last September on bringing rural communities forward. At a recent European Parliament event where ‘‘smart villages’’ were the focus, he spoke at length about how these can be the model that is the future basis for the development of farming and rural communities.

He highlighted how LEADER, the long-running programme that accommodates groups and individuals who pitch for funding for rural development-based projects, and that there were 2,600 LEADER groups operational across the EU.

Connectivity, broadband, mobility and infrastructure investments were emphasised as the key to delivering smart villages and, by inference, wider rural communities.

Smart villages isn’t initially a concept that fits into the Irish idea of rural life, unlike the UK or indeed many areas of mainland Europe. However, the concept is transferable to the dispersed rural settlement pattern that makes up the Irish family farm model and wider rural community.

Examples were drawn from Italy, France and an island off the coast of Scotland that demonstrated how community-based schemes could work and deliver infrastructure for the area.

In identifying development of rural infrastructure, the commissioner emphasised that it had to be locally led with a strategy that identified both barriers and opportunities to making it happen.

Strategies

He also made a link to local government, suggesting that strategies are in local regional plans and that there is an action plan for delivery. Ireland has a long history of community involvement in delivery of infrastructure beginning with the building of the national electricity network and continuing with localised rural group water schemes. It continues up to the present with LEADER.

Collectively, the co-op model has built our dairy industry and even in the beef sector where independent companies dominate, there is a successful pattern of niche breed and organic groups that demonstrate an ability of the farming community to collaborate for the common good.

The commissioner also used the occasion to announce that the Commission would be hosting a major event in Kilkenny on 1 and 2 June, bringing together Europe’s leading agri-tech entrepreneurs and innovators.

The aim of the event is to show the benefits of the European Data Economy for farmers with an emphasis on precision agriculture, smart farming and agri technology. Describing it as a “ground-breaking summit in the Marble City” the commissioner said: “We must reap the benefits of the developments in the tech sector for farmers.”