The SDLP has declared its commitment to the rural population of Northern Ireland.
Mr Patsy McGlone, candidate in Mid-Ulster, underlined his party commitment to fighting for rural issues by signing up to the Countryside Alliance Rural Pledges.
The party would fight beside the Countryside Alliance and the Rural Development Council to "make sure that the countryside gets the political support that it deserves and so desperately needs," he said.
Some 700,000 people lived in the countryside in the North, he said. Every day these people have to suffer the difficulties of economic hardship, social deprivation, inequality and disadvantage in terms of opportunity and access to important services, he addd. "This is simply not good enough."
The SDLP track record showed it was first for farmers and country dwellers, he claimed.
As Minister for Agriculture, Bríd Rodgers had increased the rural development budget by nearly 10 per cent, created 24,000 new training places for farmers, brought in an all-Ireland strategy for agriculture and "stopped foot-and-mouth disease in its tracks" with her swift and decisive action, said Mr McGlone.