At last week’s Irish Tillage and Land Use Society’s spring workshop, Marialaura Destefanis from the Department of Agriculture gave some details on the National Fertiliser Database.

Since it was set up in 2023, approximately 126,000 farmers and 360 fertiliser economic operators, which include merchants, manufacturers, blenders and importers, have registered to use the database and 700,000 transactions have been logged.

Marialaura explained that one of the main reasons that the database was set up was to try and maintain the nitrates derogation. There was no legal obligation to set up the system, but she commented that it is seen as a positive by the EU Commission.

The system also helps to gather and share data internally within the Department to track progress on fertiliser use for climate targets and to check data for the liming programme, conditionality and eco-schemes.

Marialaura explained that the only time that farmers really need to interact with the database is to declare their closing stocks. For one month from 15 September, farmers must declare how much fertiliser they had on their farm at 11.59pm on 14 September. This means is a farmer overbuys fertiliser they can declare that it wasn't spread on land and is still in stock on the farm. If farmers trade fertiliser between each other, then this must be logged as well.

Marialaura explained that if closing stocks are not declared, fines can be implemented, but this is not something that the Department tries to do unless someone is really not co-operating with the database.

New report

As of about a month ago farmers can now download a report with their fertiliser transactions and types. This is handy for inspections, but also for farmers’ own records.

Imports

On imports from Northern Ireland, Marialaura said the Department know that imports are crossing the border and Northern Ireland suppliers are not obliged to declare transactions. Currently the Department is working with DAERA in Northern Ireland to have a system with a whole-island approach, and this may be up and running by January 2026.