PLENTY is written about the plight of rural communities as local pubs close down, bus services are placed under threat and village shops and post offices succumb to the harsh realities of economic life.

Meanwhile, the pressures on house prices continue in the countryside. A report out yesterday says booming demand for holiday homes in many rural locations has pushed up house prices well above what locals can afford, forcing many young people and families to move out to cheaper, urban areas.

Today, the focus is on farmers and farming, a huge part of the Dorset economy.

A quarter of the country’s farming households live below the poverty line, the Rural Communities Commission says.

The commission is urging the government to do more to help farmers access benefits and develop their businesses.

The problems can be particularly acute for tenant farmers who do not own their own land and can find it difficult to raise the capital to diversify and modernise because banks view them as having no collateral.

The take up of benefits is lower too, because many farmers are independent and are reluctant to take them.

While some farmers grow prosperous on the back of EU subsidies, many struggle to make ends meets.

Tackling poverty among farming households is long overdue.