Because of their age many farmers may not pass their farm on to their inheritors (they are too young to be granted agricultural pension), but the fact that they are over 50 years old eliminates them under Polish rules from participation in this measure, as described in the programme.

Calls on donors to channel their support for developing agriculture primarily through national development funds which grant subsidies and loans to smallholders and family farming.

Particularly adverse phenomena are to be seen in rural areas, where the number of young people wanting to take over the running of farms continues to fall.

11. Recalls that since less-favoured communities tend to derive their subsistence from agriculture, the development of sustainable agriculture and serious consideration of the assessments in the IAASTD is a necessary condition for realising Millennium Development Goal 1; believes that small farming in particular can offer a response to the challenge of food security by means of strengthening the vital role played by women, via on-the-spot processing and the widespread use of loans and microcredits, and involving small producers' cooperatives as key players in the definition of effective agricultural and commercial policies;