Agriculture says no fallout despite fertilizer reduction

Tag : Fertilizer
Wednesday, 08 October 2008 Despite last month's 20 per cent reduction in total sales offertilizer from the country's sole manufacturer, Newport Fersan,the Ministry of Agriculture does not project any significantdecline in domestic crop production.

A release issued Wednesday by the Ministry of Agriculture notesthat it has been trying to help farmers survive the fallout andsalvage crops. Communications Advisor at the Ministry ofAgriculture, Patrick Maitland says several measures have been putin place to cushion the effect.

"Over the last couple of months because of the increasingprice of fertiliser as much as over a 100 per cent in some casesfarmers cut back, they just not able to afford it. But during thesame period of time a number of things including private importersbringing in fertilizers and RADA has stepped up its farmereducation programme," he said.

He says an additional 25,000 tonnes of fertilizer will be importedby the Ministry by the end of the year, as part of the state'sintervention to buffer high fertilizer prices.

As part of the farm recovery programmes, the Ministry has alsoimplemented incentives to assist farmers including a $25 millionsubsidy on fertilizer and $7 million for seeds and other plantingmaterial.

Meantime, the country's sole manufacturer of fertiliser, NewportFersan Limited is moving to allay fears about an alternative blendof fertiliser that has been introduced in the retail distributivetrade.

Farmers have complained to our news centre, that they are waryabout suspicious particles found in the fertiliser that they havebeen purchasing in recent weeks.

However General Manager of Newport Fersan John Allen says there'sno need for alarm.

"In order to contain the price of fertilisers because of therapid increases that were taking place we started to formualate andinclude calcium carbonate in the fertilizer as a filler. It doesnot impact in any way on the integrity of the fertilizer withrespect to the availability of the nutrients," he said.