AGRICULTURE ministers of the European Community (EC) member-nations seem extremely reluctant to go ahead with their proposed "green agenda" at the cost of offending the farming population. At the 2-day farm council meeting at Luxembourg, they put off the decision to implement rate changes in the green currency system, agreeing to take up the issue when they meet again on May 29. The Luxembourg meeting was @onvened specifically to discuss the problems involved in the agri-monetary s% stem, which includes revaluations of a 4reen currency", the rate that converts I-ommon farm prices and subsidies into national currencies. But this also entails a corresponding fall in the value of aid to farmers and is likely to erode their income.

In an attempt to protect its farmers from the adverse effects of a strong Deutschmark, Germany has even suggested that the EC pay the farmers to compensate for the revaluation.