Achterhoek begins pilot project for rededicating farm buildings

AALTEN - The eastern Dutch border region known as ‘Achterhoek’ is taking the ongoing problem of abandoned or surplus farm buildings and land serious. It has set up a pilot program for the viable reuse of rural buildings and fields and is asking the province (Gelderland) to help fund and compensate the region for creating more space for urban expansion. Regional authorities want to maintain and reuse many of the buildings and fields which now are or in the near future could become surplus because of vast changes in the agricultural sector where many farmers are quitting.