Government's decision to axe a 40-year service of spraying the Island's citrus trees has been welcomed by the Department of Agriculture and some planters.

The move, while representing a $213,000 cost saving according to the Budget released on Friday, will still enable planters to receive professional advice.

Not lamenting the cessation of the programme was Director of Agriculture and Fisheries, John Barnes. He said the service had become impractical, was not meeting the needs of planters and was run "like a Government factory assembly line''.

"The programme began 40 years ago when there were sizeable citrus groves on the Island,'' said Mr. Barnes, "but in recent years those numbers have shrunk considerably.

"Some people only have a few trees now and the way the programme worked did not address the special needs of each case. It was run like a Government factory assembly line where in set months, set sprayings took place.'' Mr. Barnes describing the shortfalls of the programme, noted that when the month to spray fungicide arrived, irrespective of whether the plant needed it, it got it. The same was true, he said, in the case of insecticide and copper sprayings.

One small planter told The Royal Gazette that she felt the sprayings had become detrimental to her trees and claimed that in recent years her plants had stopped bearing fruit altogether.

Told Government had axed the programme, she said: "I don't think it will be a loss, the sprays were burning my plants and I know a lot of people who were planning to stop for the same reason.'' In fact Mr. Barnes also noted that many citrus owners had become dissatisfied with the service.

"More and more people had cancelled the service and were doing it on their own or getting one of the landscaping companies to take it over,'' he said.

"We had been looking at scaling it down and then when Budget cuts were needed it was decided to end the programme,'' he continued.

"The timing was good to end it,'' he added, "The spray trucks are actually quite old and we would soon have to be replacing them. That would have been a big capital expense, for a project that was losing popularity.'' Five people formed the citrus spraying team in the Department of Agriculture and Mr. Barnes noted: "They are all happy and have been reallocated in the department.''