No Agreement on Urea Ban
IFA did not agree to ban straight urea as part of discussions in the Agriculture Water Quality Group, as reported in the media this week.
The leaked October 3rd ‘minutes’ of the Water Quality Group, which were mentioned in the article, were prepared by DAFM and are clearly labelled ‘draft minutes’.
They have not been approved by the Agriculture Water Quality Group.
In fact, at the subsequent meeting of the group on October 17th, issues were raised by IFA and others with these ‘draft minutes’ and they were not approved. Members were invited to make submissions on the draft minutes.
While the uptake of protected urea in our sector has been positive, there are some concerns about the consistency of the product. We need to continue to encourage take up and to improve the product and its availability. Banning straight urea until these concerns are fully addressed is not the right approach and could be counterproductive.
Previously, we had written to the Department on September 5th to outline our opposition to the proposal to ban straight urea fertiliser until farmer concerns are fully addressed.
