The National Fertiliser Database is live and is now open for registration of Professional Fertiliser End Users (primarily farmers and others that use fertilisers as part of their work) and Fertiliser Economic Operators (e.g. importers, merchants etc. that sell fertilisers). From the 1st September anyone wishing to sell or purchase fertiliser (including lime) must be being registered.
Commenting on the launch of the National Fertiliser Database, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD said, “the roll-out of the National Fertiliser Database is an important milestone and the culmination of a huge effort by my Department together with industry stakeholders over the past eighteen months to progress the legislation, the IT infrastructure and the communications plan needed to underpin this database. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Stakeholder Consultative Committee for their constructive engagement during this process.”
From 1st September, 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. This is a very straightforward and simple process whereby farmers, or their agents, can register now using www.agfood.ie. Importantly, those farmers involved in the import of fertiliser, farm to farm transfers, and/or retail sale of fertiliser must also register as Fertiliser Economic Operators on www.agfood.ie .
Also from 1st September, all fertiliser transactions along the supply chain must be recorded. This includes fertiliser dispatched from merchants’ premises to farms, moving from farm-to-farm or imported. Merchants can enter this data manually through the Department’s digital online service www.agfood.ie or through an Application Programming Interface that facilitates automatic upload of data from retailers’ IT system directly to the National Fertiliser Database.
The Minister continued by saying, “the National Fertiliser Database will require very little additional work for most farmers and will provide a number of benefits. Over the coming weeks my Department will write to all farmers about the new requirements and Department officials will also have a stand at the National Ploughing Championships where individual queries will be answered and assistance with registration will be provided.”
