The Grenada Government, in an attempt to boost the nation's agricultural production and sale, is about to hire a marketing manager to work within the Ministry of Agriculture. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Jemma Bain Thomas, has said that the employment of a marketing manager is one of several new initiatives to be undertaken in 2009 to further develop and strengthen the agricultural sector. Other initiatives will include stiffening the penalty for praedial larceny and putting more government lands into agricultural usage. "Part of our renewed mission statement is to stimulate maximum production for food security locally and also for the export market,'' Mrs. Bain Thomas said. "In the Ministry of Agriculture, we have to take creative steps to develop a strategy that will enable all agricultural lands to be under cultivation.'' The Permanent Secretary said a propagating plant, which has already been developed, will ensure quality planting materials are available to meet farmers' needs. "That plant,'' she explained, "will ensure that we have quality material for planting in 2009, so that we can see an increase in the acreage that is under cultivation for nutmeg, bananas and some non-traditional crops.'' Senator Keith Clouden, the agricultural representative in the Upper House of Parliament, has welcomed the government's plans for agricultural development, including a proposed land bank to help farmers who do not have plots on which to cultivate crops. "The initiatives that will be undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture are useful and important,'' he said. The Senator believes that land offered under the proposed land bank will assist in augmenting the number of farmers in the country. "Quite often, you find persons who are interested in pursuing agriculture but they don't have lands, '' Senator Clouden said. "Even those who attended the Mirabeau Farm School in the past, and who would have gained knowledge and skills in agriculture, quite often are not fortunate enough to have land. And because there was no such thing as a land bank, a lot of them would have had to engage in other occupations.'' Inside Grenada News