Catalogue description Records of Fertilisers

Fertilisers Division and Lime Department

The Ministry's responsibilities for fertilisers other than lime have principally been concerned with ensuring the quality of fertilisers sold to farmers. The earliest legislation to this effect was the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act 1893, and there were further Acts in 1906 and 1926. Under these Acts the Minister is responsible for making regulations, though enforcement lay with local authorities, and the 1926 Act provided for a Standing Advisory Committee to be consulted about regulations (including representatives of farmers, manufacturers, scientists and local authorities); this stood from 1926 to 1939 and 1950 to 1970. The Ministry has also administered fertiliser subsidy schemes to encourage their use, originally to the manufacturers (from 1940), but from 1952 and the Agriculture (Fertilisers) Act, the Ministry was authorised to contribute up to one half of the cost of certain fertilisers to farmers. These responsibilities were originally exercised by the Land Division, and from 1926 by the Commercial Division, then the Supplies Division III (1940-1943), at which time the Fertilisers and Seeds Division was established.

The practice of adding alkali lime to acidic soils, in order to release nutrients in the soil and make them available to the crops being grown, and so increase production, is an ancient one. To be properly effective, liming must be carried out regularly, but at times of low agricultural incomes it is often neglected. Such was the case during and after the great agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century in Britain, with the result that by the 1930s the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries recognised that there was an accumulated 'lime deficiency' which needed to be addressed. As a result, the Agriculture Act 1937 included provision for a Land Fertility Scheme, to be established and run by a Land Fertility Committee. Under the scheme, farmers and growers received contributions towards the cost of acquiring and transporting lime, and a levy was made on lime producers and the occupiers of agricultural land to finance research and education programmes on the use of lime.

The committee was abolished in July 1941 when basic lime slag was excluded from the scheme, and responsibility for administering the scheme passed to the Ministry's Agricultural Lime Department, which was attached to the Fertilisers and Seeds Division in 1943. The department was responsible for the administration of the scheme, and generally for questions relating to the supply of lime for agricultural purposes. The levy was discontinued in 1946, and the Land Fertility Scheme was wound up in 1947 and replaced by the new Agricultural Lime Scheme under the Agriculture Act 1947. The Agricultural Lime Scheme was revised several times between 1947 and 1977 when it was finally discontinued.

Responsibility for the scheme's administration remained with the Agricultural Lime Department, which was itself part of the following divisions which dealt with all aspects of fertiliser and feedingstuffs policy and administration: Fertilisers, Seeds and Hill Farming Division (1954-1956); Crop Production Division (1956-1957); International Cereals, Feedingstuffs and Fertilisers Division (1957-1959); Grassland and Crop Improvement Division (1959-1969); Crop Improvement Division (1969-1970); Defence, emergencies and Crop Improvement Division (1970-1974); and the Emergencies, Fertilisers and Feedingstuffs Standards Division (1974-1977).

Commercial control of fertilisers and feedingstuffs has been exercised successively by the Supplies Division III (1939-1945), the Fertilisers and Seeds Division (1945-1954) and the Fertilisers, Seeds and Hill Farming Division (1954-1955) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Crop Production (1955-1957), International Feedingstuffs and Fertilisers (1957-1959), Grassland and Crop Improvement (1959-1969), Crop Improvement (1969-1970), Defence, Emergencies and Crop Improvement (1970-1974), Emergencies, Fertilisers and Feedingstuffs Standards (1974-1981), Food Safety, Fertilisers and Feedingstuffs Standards (1988-1989), Food Safety Division II (1989-1990), Chemical Safety of Foods (1990-1995) and Additives and Novel Foods (1995-) Divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.