FERTILISER imports should be subjected to the same stringent regulations as farmers as inconsistencies in density and granule size is causing problems locally.
That’s according to the West Cork IFA branch who are highlighting the problem at government level because of the impact it’s having on their work, and subsequently their finances.
Ronald Shorten, spokesman for the branch said there can be big differences in the density of fertiliser: ‘The issue is that if it’s not dense enough, it impacts the ability to spread it properly – it will hit the discs of the spreader and the granules will shatter and they won’t spread.’
Secondly, the size of the granules is not uniform, which hinders accurate spreading, particularly without GPS.
‘The problems persist across different companies as they’re all importing fertiliser from the same source,’ said Ronald.
Given the cost of fertiliser – between €500 and €600 a tonne– and the fact that farmers are limited in options on what they can spread, they deserve better standards, he said.
‘What we’re calling for is fertiliser of a certain density, and granules of a certain size – if it’s all small, that’s fine; the problem is when there’s a mix of small, medium and large. It’s only a few weeks later that you’ll see the difference caused by what you’ve spread and the damage is done at that stage,’ he said.
The issue was raised at a recent meeting of the branch where a lot of farmers said they were finding big variations in the quality of product coming from most companies supplying these
products.
It was suggested at the meeting that the IFA should look to the Department of Agriculture to produce minimum standards for fertiliser to be sold, and for fertiliser companies to comply with.
