The U.K. government on Jan. 26 closes a consultation seeking views on how the country’s farmers can reduce ammonia emissions.
The consultation, launched on Nov. 3, has presented three options, including a total ban on solid urea fertilizers, or a requirement to stabilize them with the addition of a urease inhibitor, a chemical that helps to slow the conversion of urea to ammonium (GM Nov. 6, 2020).
A third option would be the requirement to restrict the spreading of solid urea fertilizers so that they can only be used from Jan. 15 to March 31.
A ban on solid urea fertilizers would achieve around 31 percent of the ammonia reduction target by 2030, DEFRA said. Liquid urea would be excluded from any new rules.
The U.K.’s National Farmers Union (NFU) is urging the country’s farmers to respond to the consultation. The NFU Combinable Crops Board chair, Matt Culley, in a Q&A on the union’s website said urea was the most commonly used form of nitrogen fertilizer in the world, and “an important tool for farmers in producing food.
“Urea has a big role to play, particularly when it comes to first applications, if it’s used in the right way and in the right places,” he said. “Many growers now will only use urea early on in their fertilizer program and switch to ammonium nitrate as the weather warms up and the ground warms up.”
It offers several advantages when used alongside ammonium nitrate as well as helping to maintain a competitive fertilizer market in the U.K., and is safer to handle, said Culley.
If a valued product like urea was lost, it will have an impact on farmers’ business and cost of production, he said.
The U.K. imported 816,353 mt of solid urea in 2019, according to the country’s revenue and Customs (HMRC) office. Imports in the first 10 months of last year were 656,008 mt, versus 674,887 mt in the same period in 2019.
The country has no domestic urea production, and demand is entirely currently met by imports from The Netherlands, Germany, and Russia, as well as the Middle East.