Prime Minister Keith Mitchell is encouraging nutmeg farmers to consider alternative crops as part of their replanting schemes. Speaking to residents in Beauregard recently, the Prime Minister said efforts are being made to resuscitate as many of the nutmeg trees as possible and to provide farmers with new plants. However, the Prime Minister said, nutmeg farmers cannot be expected to wait six to eight years for an income. As an interim measure, farmers who have nutmeg estates are encouraged to plant bananas. “Those farmers who have nutmeg estates, we are encouraging them now to go back into planting things like bananas, because we have now got the OK from Trinidad and Barbados and a number of countries to take as much of the bananas as you grow here in Grenada in the interim, in the next three years or so, to help the farmers in Grenada with an alternative income,” the Prime Minister said. Prime Minister Mitchell also referred to the cut flowers industry, noting that cut flowers are not difficult to grow and do not take a long time to bear. “The Ministry (of Agriculture) is helping people with the technical information to be able to develop that area to your benefit,” he said. Referring to the visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Grenada in September, the Prime Minister recalled that Mr. Powell said there is a large market in the USA for cut flowers. “He said that he recommends that some of the farmers should get involved in cut flowers because there is a lot of money in that.” Prime Minister Mitchell, in keeping with the Government’s longstanding policy of enhanced diversification in agriculture, encouraged farmers to consider more fruit and vegetable production. “Again, our Caribbean brothers have agreed that they are able take a lot of the vegetables that we grow, in excess of what Grenadians need. They are willing to buy from us as a means of supporting their brothers and sisters here in Grenada,” he said. The Prime Minister also pointed out that the Government is providing free fertilizer to farmers. Source: Office of the Prime Minister