Animal fertilisers, compost, recovered phosphates and other organic fertilisers

Decree of the Minister of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Food Quality amending the Decree on the use of fertilisers and the Fertilisers Act Implementing Decree in implementation of the sixth Nitrates Directive Action Programme and various other amendments

The Decree aims to implement in legislation some of the measures described in the sixth Nitrates Directive Action Programme 2018-2021. The sixth action programme implements the requirements of the Nitrates Directive with the purpose of reducing the water pollution caused or produced by nitrates from agricultural sources and to prevent further pollution of this nature.

The Decree on the use of fertilisers includes use application standards for nitrogen and phosphate for land other than farmland or nature reserves (‘other land’). Other land that is grassland or arable land is subject to a higher application standard than other types of other land. No distinction has previously been made between both types of land. The current standard of 80 kg per hectare is low for grassland but high for arable land. The Decree differentiates between the application standard for grassland and arable land since the phosphate requirement for grassland is higher than for arable land. For arable land, crop rotation is assumed. The phosphate application standard for other land being grassland is 90 kg of phosphate per hectare per year. The phosphate application standard for other land being arable land is set to 60 kilograms per hectare per year. These standards are based on the phosphate application standard for farmland with a neutral phosphate status. The standard for nitrogen remains equal to the maximum application standard for nitrogen from animal manure pursuant to the Nitrates Directive (170 kg per hectare per year).