All farmers are set to receive letters from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine over the course of the next two weeks outlining the upcoming requirements under the new National Fertiliser Database.
The database is now officially operational, with ‘professional fertiliser economic operators’ and ‘professional fertiliser end users’ (the latter of which includes farmers, among other fertiliser users) now able to register on the database.
This follows on from the enactment of the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertiliser Regulations 2023, and the signing of associated secondary legislation by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue.
It is not yet compulsory for farmers and other professional fertiliser end-users to be registered on the database to purchase fertiliser (including lime). However, it will become compulsory from September 1.
Farmers (or their agents) can register for the database through the department’s online agfood portal.
The letters that farmers will be receiving will outline the requirements under the National Fertiliser Database.
This includes the following actions:
- Register as a professional fertiliser end-user to purchase fertiliser from September 1, 2023;
- Once registered, 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;
- Register as a fertiliser economic operator if you are involved in importing fertiliser (from a third country or another EU member state) and involved in farm-to-farm transfers of fertiliser.
A number of rules will come into effect from September 1.
From this date, it will be an offence to sell or purchase fertiliser without being registered.
Also from September 1, imports into the state must be notified to the National Fertiliser Database (within 72 hours of import); and all data on fertiliser transactions will be recorded from that date.
For fertiliser economic operators (including manufacturers/blenders, merchants, and importers), there are a number of different responsibilities.
By December 15, fertiliser economic operators must submit September, October and November 2023 sales data to the National Fertiliser Database.
From January 15, 2024, fertiliser economic operators must submit December 2023 sales data to the database. From then on, all monthly sales data will have to be submitted by the 15th of the following month.
Under the new rules, any of the following will be an offence:
- Failing to comply with the requirements to register as a fertiliser economic operator or as a professional fertiliser end user;
- Failing to supply details required by fertiliser economic operators or professional fertiliser end-users;
- Providing information knowing it to be false or misleading.
A person who commits one of these offences is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine (a fine of up to €5,000).
The actual penalty in each case will depend on the exact offence committed.