Dear John Quinton,
Thank you for your helpful contribution. We do agree that greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizers have an important environmental impact and we also agree on the importance of emphasizing the different risks including the issue of water pollution. It was decided that the evidence regarding these issues has been well documented and that it would therefore not require us to go into much details. The aim was to focus on the different actions that can be taken by different stakeholders to minimize these negative environmental effects. As you have mentioned, the code is already very long and we tried to avoid redundancies. Items 1.3.3, 4.2 and 4.9.2 address atmospheric emissions and items 1.3.5, 3.6.5, 4.2 address the issue of water pollution. We will look at these more closely and determine whether these important issues were properly approached and sufficiently addressed.
Dear Olegario Muniz,
Thank you for your helpful contribution. There seems to be a misunderstanding about this code putting fertilizers and pesticides in the same bag. This was not done purposefully and we will definitely work on this in order to avoid any misunderstandings. We do agree that the purpose of these two products are different and that safety issues are more serious when it comes to pesticides. However, there are also some risks (both environmental and related to human and animal health) that are associated with fertilizers. It is therefore important to address them accordingly.
Dear Negash Tegegn,
Thank you for your helpful contribution. We did mention biochar in the section on nutrient reuse and recycling, more specifically in item 5.1. We realize that due to the length of the document and the way it is organized it can be a little hard to find certain items. We also agree that fertilizer adulteration is an important issue. I believe that the sections on composition, labelling but also on the sale of fertilizers touches upon the topic but we could add another item that specifically tackles the issue of fertilizer adulteration.
Dear Joseph Ahenda,
Thank you for your helpful contribution and feedback. We will be using your feedback in the new draft of the code. As for soil conditioners, it can be a little bit tricky as not all soil conditioners contain plant nutrients, which are the only soil amendments that we are including in this code of conduct. Some of these soil conditioners, especially those that provide nutrients or improve accessibility of nutrients to plants can be mentioned in the code.
Ms. Zineb Bazza