Product Stewardship in Fertiliser Business

Our approach

Many of the product stewardship issues concerning agricultural fertilisers are not confined to individual suppliers. These are addressed at the industry level through the Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA). As Australia's largest fertiliser supplier, Incitec Pivot Fertilisers (IPF) is a key member of the FIFA and actively engages in the FIFA product stewardship activities.

IPF's internal Product Design and Stewardship standards require a life cycle risk assessment to be conducted for any new proprietary fertiliser product or service. A life cycle risk assessment covers the "manufacture, use and disposal of products over which the business can be expected to have a direct influence."

Life cycle risk assessments are not required for commodity products that are in common and widespread use and where Incitec Pivot is not the sole supplier.

No life cycle risk assessments were conducted during the FY2010/11 period as no new proprietary products were released.

Recent product stewardship activities within Incitec Pivot's fertiliser business have focused on:

• developing and promoting enhanced efficiency fertilisers; and
• promoting best fertiliser management practice, as defined by the International Plant and Nutrition Institute.

Best fertiliser management practices

Fertilisers are essential to productive and profitable farming. To maximise fertiliser use efficiency and return on investment, attention has to be paid to how, when and where fertilisers are applied. It is also important that fertilisers be applied at appropriate rates. Too little, and crop and pasture yields may be sacrificed and produce quality affected. Too much, and the nutrients applied in excess of crop demands may be lost, either to the atmosphere or to waterways. Nutrient enrichment of waterways can stimulate weed and algal growth, and change ecosystems.

To maximise nutrient use efficiency, it is important that fertilisers are used at appropriate rates and in a responsible manner. Our fertilisers business is an active member of the International Plant Nutrition Institute and promotes their 4R nutrient stewardship:

• Right source;
• Right rate;
• Right time; and
• Right place.

The Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) has a similar approach, which we also promote.

To support this, our agronomy laboratories offer soil and plant testing to farmers. This, together with professional advice from our team of agronomists and our computerised decision-support system, provides the diagnostic data, best practice information and advice farmers need to choose the right fertilisers and apply them correctly, reducing nutrient run-off.

Our laboratories process approximately 100,000 samples over the year, servicing farmers in every state of Australia, except Western Australia.

IPF's field personnel are Fertcare Accredited Advisors. Fertcare is an Australian fertiliser industry product stewardship program that includes training, quality assurance, certification and accreditation. We maintain a pool of accredited personnel and regularly update the Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) on the number of accredited advisors.

Our computerised decision-support system is called Nutrient Advice Advantage. This recommends the optimum fertiliser application for a specific crop, based on agronomic best practice. This system has continued to be developed and updated this year, with a new release planned in the short term. The system is audited by the Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) every two years.

Product labelling and information

IPF follows the Code of Practice for Labelling and Standards, developed by the Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA). This code of practice aims to achieve uniform description and labelling of fertilisers across Australia.

We provide documentation and advice to our customers about:

• product content, particularly with regard to substances that might produce an environmental or social impact, including human health and safety;
• safe use, storage and handling of the product; and
• disposal of the product and environmental/social impacts, as required by the appropriate laws in the countries we supply fertilisers into.

This advice is supplied on our website, on the product label, in the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) or directly to the customer. Our SDSs comply with the requirements of Safe Work Australia.

The sourcing of components of the product is not typically included in product documentation or labelling.