Fake fertilizers: Agriculture exhausted, government 'kicks the ball' of responsibility

The law stipulates that fertilizer production is a conditional business, but management of this field is still chaotic, fake fertilizers are rampant...

The production and sale of fake and poor quality fertilizers is still rampant in many localities. Recently, Dak Nong province has recorded many cases of farmers using fake and poor quality fertilizers. However, when people report to local authorities or relevant agencies, the "responsibility ball" is kicked in another direction.

The fertilizer market has been disrupted for many years by fake and poor quality goods (Illustration: KT)

In fact, Dak Nong province has recently recorded many cases of poor quality fertilizers. In addition to the case of fake fertilizers bearing the COMPOST TSN brand of Tam Sinh Nghia Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, there have also been cases of fake fertilizers killing hundreds of hectares of pepper in Dak Glong and Krong No districts.

If the most recent crop of poor quality fertilizer was biofertilizer mixed with waste and plastic scraps, many previous crops of fake fertilizer were NPK fertilizers with much higher prices. It is worth mentioning that during the process of use, farmers discovered unusual signs, such as the fertilizer clumping into lumps and having a white color like lime, but due to lack of knowledge, they still used it, to the point of losing money and killing the garden.

Furthermore, when the incident occurred, the people also reported it to the authorities for handling, but the results were not as expected. As for the latest case, the authorities have not responded for a month. In previous cases, the deadline has been overdue for 4 months. This agency passes the responsibility to another agency.

The fact that people reported the fake fertilizer situation to the authorities, and the recent actions of the Agriculture Department and the fertilizer company in delaying the deadline, have shown that there are many irregularities. It is possible that when an incident occurs, the company tries to prolong the delay in order to find a suitable and "objective" reason to be able to respond to the people and the competent authorities.

Many people even strongly assert that in the fertilizer sector, there exist group interests, even protection from law enforcement forces, participating in assisting dishonest traders.

Regarding the issue of assigning responsibility, in the provinces and cities, the Department of Industry and Trade is assigned to manage 90% of inorganic fertilizers and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is assigned to manage 10% of organic fertilizers and other types of fertilizers. However, whenever a fertilizer production facility is found to have signs of violations, the authorities still do not know who to assign responsibility to.

Currently, the law stipulates that fertilizer production is a conditional business, but the management of this field is still chaotic, without unified coordination between functional agencies. In cases like this, even the quality control agency is not trusted. Any farmer who wants the inspection to have the correct results must erase the fertilizer label, not inform the inspection agency where the fertilizer sample was taken, which company it is from, and what the inspection is for... This is a very worrying situation.

Farmers in the Central Highlands have recently been sitting on hot coals because pepper prices have dropped too low, some localities have gone into debt because of pumpkin crops, but fertilizers and agricultural materials have remained the same or even increased in price, causing farmers to fall into dire straits. Farmers need to be smart consumers, choosing, consulting and trusting reputable fertilizers on the market. If they use strange fertilizers, in significant quantities, they must take samples for testing themselves, as some farmers still do, that is, erase the label, do not notify the testing agency of related contents, to avoid collusion for benefits, giving results that are inconsistent with reality.

In addition, the relevant authorities and businesses need to be more responsible towards farmers and need to have strict sanctions to deal with violations to regain people's trust. If everything is not handled strictly according to the law, people will no longer trust the government, causing serious consequences in state management./.

According to VOV