News Fertilizer Act
Badly timed internet consultation on fertilizers
On Monday (August 10), the internet consultation regarding the amendment of the Fertilizers Act Implementing Regulation (Urm) of the Ministry of Agriculture started. A very unfortunate timing in the middle of the summer holidays, with a short period to react, according to LTO and Cumela.
The Ministry of LNV aims to have manure transports accounted for digitally and in real time (RVDM) by 2021. This requires an amendment to the Fertilizers Act. An online consultation has been opened to give organizations and stakeholders the opportunity to contribute ideas about the change. In the next 4 weeks everyone has the chance to react, a remarkable timing in a somewhat special period LTO and Cumela think
Digitization
LTO Nederland states that "in general it supports the aim of improving the picture and making the manure chain more transparent". The representative does state that it is of great importance that the right aids are used in a situation where they are appropriate. In addition, the tools to digitize the manure flows must be practical and ensure less work pressure.
And that is precisely what the government is failing to do, according to Hans Verkerk of Cumela. Despite noting a number of changes introduced by, among others, Cumela in the consultation last June, the current idea is far from practical. "We resent the fact that a manure intermediary will soon have to work in 3 different systems that do not match each other. Digitization should make accountability easier and less labour-intensive, which is not the case at the moment. 2 of the 3 systems are not in place anyway. connected to each other, so that everything still has to be entered manually, which only results in more work, instead of less," says Verkerk.
Special period
Both LTO and Cumela have announced that they will take a close look at the current changes, in order to come up with clear adjustments where possible. Both organizations are not happy about the timing of the online consultation. In the middle of a summer holiday, while many people are still on holiday and then open the consultation for only 4 weeks. The organizations call the timing unfortunate, especially because they want to see both internally (within their own team) and externally (in collaboration with other representatives) whether a mutually reinforcing bond can be created to come up with good alternatives when necessary. The timing seems to be dictated by a lack of time, something the organizations say does not fit the need for the issue.
Jorine Cosse
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