While the adoption of new mechanical and biological-chemical technology has brought revolutionary changes in agricultural production, these changes have also contributed to a decline in employment in many rural industries. There are, however, a number of new technologies, likely to impact on rural areas in the 1980s and beyond, that should level…

The new demands being placed on the rural land base--for agricultural production, for energy and minerals, as well as for economic development--are considerable, and rural areas today face the difficult challenge of finding ways to accommodate new growth and development, while at the same time ensuring that essential activities and the inherent…