The Grenada government says that the controversial Agriculture Emergency Rehabilitation Programme (AERP) that was launched last November to urgently revitalise the island's agriculture sector in the aftermath of hurricane Ivan will not be reintroduced.

This was disclosed last week Tuesday by Minister of Public Utilities and Agriculture, Gregory Bowen at a press conference held at Cabinet Room in the Ministerial Complex building.

AERP was launched to ensure that farmers quickly got back into the production of vegetables and meat to feed the nation in the aftermath of Ivan's destruction last September.

The programme ran into a number of problems such as inadequate supervision resulting in the names of several persons some deceased turning up on the pay sheet. Some workers under the programme also complained about late payment of cheques, unavailability of planting materials as well as the non-proportionate distribution of fertilizers, tools and seed.

Bowen told reporters that plans are afoot by the ministry to introduce a new programme for the ailing agriculture industry but that it will not be operated as AERP.

He said the ministry will divide the farming community into two groups, large farmers and those engaged in agricultural practices on a smaller scale so that the necessary assistance will be rendered.

He indicated that the first leg of the programme will target 600 large farmers who will have access to a soft loan to assist them in the rehabilitation of their farms. Under that programme, machinery, plants and fertilizers will also be distributed to farmers.

The Agriculture Minister pointed out that in the case of the smaller farmers they will be able to draw labour from an organised labour force to assist in the clearing of their lands. Minister Bowen stressed that government wants to move away from the idea of paying for labour because of what happened with AERP last year.

Meanwhile, the senior government Minister promised that persons who are yet to be paid under the AERP programme will receive their monies shortly. He pointed out that the reason some persons were not paid is because the Ministry along with the Audit Department have to verify if the work claimed to have been done was actually completed.

Meanwhile, Chief Agronomist Cecil Winsborough who also spoke at the press conference disclosed that the Ministry has noticed significant increases in the prices for seeds and fertilizers. He stated that there is also a problem with the rat population on the island and in order to reduce the population, some twelve thousand pounds of poison were distributed to farmers in the past week.

According to Winsborough, the passage of hurricane Emily last month also resulted in further setbacks to the agriculture sector. He said the island was getting very close to becoming self sufficient once again in banana production but it has now suffered a major setback with the total wipe out of the crop at River Antoine Estate due to the latest hurricane.

He stressed that Grenada will have to resort to importing bananas once again as it did in the immediate aftermath of hurricane Ivan. Winsborough was confident that if the island does not have another major disaster then from January or February next year, the banana industry will be on the upswing once again.