In 1956, on top of many factors such as the rural exodus that were contributing to a decline in cultivation, the lemon trees were ravaged by the ‘mal secco’ disease, which is caused by the ascomycete Phoma tracheiphila (Petri).

3. Stresses that rural areas may find it difficult to adapt to this new regional orientation policy because of their specific characteristics: an ageing population, problems of access arising from inadequate communications and transport networks, an ongoing rural exodus, lower levels of qualification of rural populations, lack of infrastructure and public services, multiple jobs of those working in rural areas, the lack of technology for setting up projects and of centres of excellence grouping companies and educational and research institutions;

The Portuguese NAP emphasises the growing gulf between peripheral rural regions and coastal rural regions due to economic development which has led to an exodus of populations from the rural interior.

Accordingly, an inclusion and development programme will be launched to combat, inter alia, isolation, population exodus and exclusion in depressed rural areas.

The problem is particularly acute in the developing countries, where it is necessary to avoid the exodus of rural populations to urban centres where situations of extreme poverty arise.

[26] This latter situation is particularly problematic in the Iberian peninsula where there is a continuing exodus from the inland rural areas towards already heavily populated coastal areas, causing environmental and socio-economic problems for both the source and destination areas.