Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has confirmed that the facility for declaring closing stock of fertiliser on the National Fertiliser Database is now available online.
From September 1, any farmer or other professional fertiliser end user who wishes to purchase fertiliser, including lime, must be registered as a professional fertiliser end user with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
Farmers involved in the import of fertiliser, farm-to-farm transfers, and/or retail sale of fertiliser must also register as fertiliser economic operators.
Fertiliser database
Minister Charlie McConalogue said he is “really pleased with the exceptional level of engagement” by the farming sector over the past two months in registering for the database.
“Over 106,000 farmers have done so and I would strongly encourage those that have yet to do so to log on to agfood.ie and complete their registration and input their closing stock return,” he said.
From today (Monday, September 18), farmers and other professional fertiliser end users can now declare closing stock of fertiliser held on their farms and premises. Such a declaration must also include those farms and premises that have no stock on hand.
Minister McConalogue emphasised the importance of accurately declaring fertiliser closing stock.
“Now that the fertiliser spreading season has ended, it is timely that farmers and other professional fertiliser end users provide a snapshot of the volume of fertilisers held on farms and premises around the country,” he said.
The final date for submission of closing stock of fertiliser on farms and premises is October 15, 2023.
In cases where there are no stocks of fertiliser on hand, farmers or their agents must tick a box to declare a “nil stock return”.
Where there is fertiliser present, the declaration should include the type of fertiliser being held and the quantities.
In order to assist those farmers and other professional fertiliser end users who may have issues or concerns around registration and closing stock declarations on the National Fertiliser Database, the department will have staff on hand at the National Ploughing Championships this week to provide advice and assistance.