The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed to Agriland that almost 32,500 farmers have now registered on the new National Fertiliser Database.
The database became fully operational at the end of July following the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertiliser Regulations 2023 Act being signed into law.
From September 1, 2023, it will be compulsory for farmers and other professional fertiliser end-users to be registered on the database to purchase fertiliser (including lime).
This means that from that date it will be an offence to sell or purchase fertiliser without being registered.
Farmers (or their agents) can register for the database through the department’s online agfood portal.
National Fertiliser Database
According to DAFM figures, as of 10:30a.m yesterday (Wednesday, August 23), there have been 32,561 registrations on the National Fertiliser Database as a professional fertiliser end user (PFEU).
72 of these registrations have been made by non-farmer PFEU’s, the department added.
The data shows that 116 fertiliser economic operators, which includes merchants registered with the department, had joined the database by that date.
A further 155 farmer registrations as a fertiliser economic operator have also been completed, DAFM said.
Under the legislation, farmers must register as a fertiliser economic operator if they are involved in importing fertiliser (from a third country or another EU member state) and involved in farm-to-farm transfers of fertiliser.
Farmers will be required to declare closing fertiliser stock on their farm as of 11:59p.m on September 14 (the end of the fertiliser spreading period). Farmers will have until October 15, to make this declaration.
By December 15, fertiliser economic operators (including manufacturers/blenders, merchants, and importers) must submit September, October and November 2023 sales data to the database.