Caption: OCCD Executive Director Varigini Badira

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, March 1, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

EXECUTIVE Director for the Office of Climate Change and Development (OCCD), Varigini Badira, called for the need for a national policy on the use of fertilizers in the country.

Mr Badira said that with the harsh effects of climate change gripping the country, and our dependency on the agricultural sector- the use of fertilizers was now becoming an issue where there isn’t a policy in place to monitor what has been put into the ground as fertilizers in nutrient depleted soils.

“People are encouraging the use of fertilizers, but the disposal of them is another issue,” Badira said.

“The other good thing is that since places like Goroka is a coffee hub, the waste coffee shells can be used as fertilizer, however, what they do now is that they burn all the waste husks.”

“The Objectives of such a policy would govern the rules on the quantity, disposal, usage, and who regulates those rules.”

Badira referred to the greenhouse factor, which is up to 6 to 7 times more carbon monoxide than natural sources as an area where the use of fertilizers were contributing to.

“If you have 100 tonnes of fertilizers, how do you use it and the rule governing its usage,” he said.

“We have to identify relevant laws that will enforce the policy, like accepted ratio of mixing the fertilizer products, the monitoring of it use in the country, and the systems in place to channel these fertilizers in an effective and safe way to protect our environment.”

“Using such things, users of such products have to be certified, and companies have to be monitored when supplying such chemicals.

“Currently we do not have a law on the use of fertilizers and we have no idea on what is being put into the land and their long terms effects, and this is one of the main areas that contributes to a lot of emissions.”