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It is essential to focus on disseminating propaganda information to farmers to make them understand features, effects, ingredients and effective contents of each type of fertilizers and plant protection products

In the past years, together with timely dissemination of propaganda information on mass media to help people to be aware of fake an poor-quality fertilizers and pesticides functional forces have made specific plans; directed their units to take professional measures; fully grasped the development of transporting, producing and trading of fertilizers and plant protection products in their management areas; and simultaneously enhanced inspection, examination and control of smuggling, production and trading of fake fertilizers and plant protection products of poor quality and strictly handled violations.

According to Mr. Vo Van Tinh, Acting Director of the provincial Market Management Department, fertilizers and pesticides are one of the essential supplies, which not only help stabilize and improve crop yields but also have an impact on the quality of agricultural products, and affect soil fertility. Therefore, trading fertilizers and plant protection products should be inspected and controlled regularly and strictly to protect the legitimate interests of manufacturers and agricultural production farmers.

As a result, in the first quarter of 2019 functional forces have inspected and handled 6 cases of trading and producing fertilizers, which violated labeling of goods and listing of prices. As for plant protection products, 69 cases have been inspected, thereby detecting and handling 4 cases of violations:  not having business certificates, labeling, and poor quality goods.

Mr. Vo Van Tinh said, inspection and control show that the violations of production and trading of fake and low-quality fertilizers and plant protection products in the province have mainly violated regulations on labeling poor-quality goods and fertilizers, and expiry dates. In particular, a number of individuals were detected to import materials for processing and packaging fertilizers with foreign origins, use exporter’s labels and then sell them on the market to deceive buyers.  The violated areas are often found in far-flung rural districts where farmers’ awareness is low and management is not tight enough.

As a province in the southern key economic region with a network of railways and north-south roads, the province’s smuggling and commercial fraud is still complicated, sophisticated and difficult to control. Meanwhile, the existing difficulty is the incomplete system of standards and regulations in the field of pesticides, fertilizers and plant varieties, making it difficult for businesses to make announcement of standards and regulations, as well as the state management agencies in the field of inspection and control. It is necessary to test the quality of products at designated facilities, which are very time-consuming and require high costs.

According to Mr. Vo Van Tinh, in the coming time smuggling, producing and trading fake and poor-quality fertilizers and pesticides with unclear origins will continue to be complicated and difficult. Therefore, the members of the provincial Steering Committee 389/ DPP and Steering Committees 389/DPs in localities are supposed to make plans and strengthen the management of quality of fertilizers and plant protection products; preventing smuggling, producing and trading in fertilizers, fake and low-quality plant protection drugs of unclear origin in the province. In particular, it is necessary to focus on disseminating propaganda information to farmers and making them understand the features, effects, ingredients and effective contents of each type of fertilizers, and plant protection products; and know how to distinguish between genuine and fake goods and be aware of the information on packages so that farmers can choose effective fertilizers. At the same time, it is essential to strengthen the inspection and examination of organizations and individuals producing and trading fertilizers and plant protection products, especially in hard-to-access and far-flung areas; and coordinate with media agencies to provide information on violators and sanctions.

Duy Minh (N. Lan)