FERTILISERS (UNITED KINGDOM) SCHEME 1966 (Hansard, 17 May 1966)

§ LORD CHAMPION
My Lords, I beg to move that the Draft Fertilisers (United Kingdom) Scheme 1966, a copy of which was laid before Parliament on May 4, be approved. This Scheme does not involve any significant changes from the Schemes which have been approved by the House in recent years. The rates of subsidy are the same as under the 1965 Scheme and the subsidy continues to be payable on fertilisers according to the amount of nitrogen and phosphoric acid they contain, provided these are not wholly derived from organic materials, and provided the fertiliser is purchased in quantities of 4 cwt. or more for use on agricultural land, for application to crops grown on agricultural land, or for the growing of mushrooms.
906 There are two main changes in the Scheme. The first is that the Secretary of State will in future pay contributions to Scottish occupiers. This change is effected by altering the definition of "the Minister" under paragraph 2, and by having a new paragraph, paragraph 9, which amends earlier Schemes to enable the Secretary of State to pay outstanding contributions after the end of the current financial year. The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland already undertake the initial processing of applications, and this change means that that Department will assume complete responsibility for payments, thus bringing the fertiliser subsidy into line in this respect with other Schemes.
The second change is that a proviso has been added to paragraph 3, to make it clear that no contribution is payable in respect of fertilisers on which a contribution has previously been refused on the grounds that the application was submitted outside the time limit. Without this proviso there is doubt as to whether a contribution could be refused in respect of a second claim where the fertilisers were still on the farm unused after the rejection of the first application, and were nominally sold back to the supplier and repurchased by the farmer. Points such as this arise in the administration of any scheme where it becomes necessary to close a loophole which was not at first apparent, to ensure the proper and equitable administration of the scheme and to retain a proper degree of financial control.
I do not think I need trouble the House by going into detail over the minor amendments. It is perhaps sufficient to say that we have improved the wording of paragraph 4(1), and have dropped a few words which proved to be superfluous from the Schedule. The important thing about this Scheme is that it continues the fertiliser subsidy for a further year. Fertilisers have played an important part in the development of agricultural production, and I do not think anyone would dispute the fact that the subsidy, which now amounts to £30 million a year, has materially contributed to the increase in their use. In 1938–39 some 250,000 tons of plant foods were used. By 1952–53, the first year in which the subsidy applied to both nitrogen and phosphates, consumption had risen to 907 830,000 tons, and it is now about 1½ million tons, six times greater than before the war and 1¾ times the 1952–53 figure. This has not been simply an increase in the use of the same sort of fertilisers. They have become more sophisticated. We have now reached the point where three-quarters of all plant food applied is in the form of compounds, and since the subsidy was introduced compounds have themselves become more concentrated, the average nutrient content now being 38.3 per cent. My Lords, I do not think there can be any doubt that this subsidy should continue, and I ask the House to approve the Scheme to enable payments to continue for a further year.

EARL FERRERS
My Lords, may I again thank the noble Lord for introducing yet another Order of which we on this side of the House certainly approve. As he says, fertilisers have played a tremendous part in the progress of agriculture over the last decade and longer, and we are glad to know that it is the Government's intention to carry on the fertiliser subsidy for another year. The noble Lord has explained how one or two loopholes are being blocked up by this Order. I am bound to say that I think that the gentlemen in the Ministry of Agriculture are most careful in making sure that the loopholes are blocked up, because I cannot believe that there would be many farmers involved in the type of transaction for which they have in fact made provision in this Order. But it is a good thing that such supervision and care are being taken of the way the fertiliser Scheme is administered, and we are grateful to the noble Lord for introducing it.

§ LORD ROYLE
My Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend can arrange for the subsidy to be reduced when the exceedingly nasty smells which at the moment are pervading our countryside 908 are really excessive? As I drive about the countryside it occurs to me that we have around smells which are not as healthy as the less sophisticated fertilisers used in earlier days. It seems to me that this is one of the things one finds most undesirable as one goes about the countryside.

§ LORD CHAMPION
My Lords, I am bound to say that to some extent I agree with my noble friend. The only thing I can suggest to I.C.I., Fisons, and all the other manufacturers, is that they might consider adding a certain amount of Eau de Cologne to the fertilisers, which might help a little.

§ LORD BALERNO
My Lords, the noble Lord who has just spoken referred to fertilisers. The ones which have the most obnoxious smell are the organic fertilisers, not those for which the subsidy is payable. I think that this fertiliser subsidy is perhaps the most useful subsidy of all subsidies for the farmer, because the man who benefits from it most is the progressive and efficient farmer. The inefficient farmer does not buy the same quantity of fertiliser, and therefore does not benefit to the same extent. I think this is perhaps the most important subsidy the farmer gets, and in the presence of the noble Lord, Lord Hughes, I welcome the fact that this Order will give complete administration and control, right down to the payment of the fertiliser subsidy in Scotland, to his Department, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Scotland.