Failure to adopt the draft fertilising products regulation would be an own goal: A World Food Day reminder on the importance of encouraging integrated plant nutrition and soil fertility

October 17, 2018 by Jessica Fitch

On World Food Day, the European Consortium of the Organic-Based Fertilizer Industry (ECOFI) urged EU negotiators to recall the primary objective of the draft fertilising products regulation: providing a Single Market for bio-based plant nutrition and soil fertility management products such as organic fertilisers and soil improvers and organo-mineral fertilisers.

Yet today, the draft regulation risks being abandoned – and with it, the development of a functioning Single Market for bio-based fertilising products – because of differences on issues related to mineral fertilizers, products that already have access to the Single Market.

On World Food Day, it is vital to recall the importance of achieving more sustainable plant nutrition and soil fertility management to feed a growing population while facing changes such as more volatile growing conditions associated with climate change. Failing to provide a Single Market for bio-based products would handicap Europe’s capacity to foster more efficient and sustainable management and perpetuate the current situation, where many farmers do not have access to the sustainable management tools they need.

Although ECOFI acknowledges that the draft regulation is not perfect, its membership is convinced that an imperfect regulation that can be revised is better than no regulation at all.

Read the statement in full here, or learn more about organic-based fertilizers here.