MALAYSIAN STANDARD MS 1517 : 2012
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS - SPECIFICATION (FIRST REVISION)

BACKGROUND

The national technical committee that was responsible in the revision of the MS 1517 under the purview of Industry Standards Committee on Chemicals and Materials (ISC B) carries the scope on standardisation in the field of fertilizers and soil conditioners, that is, materials whose addition is intended to ensure or improve the nourishment of cultivated plants and/or to improve the properties of soils.The new work item proposal on the revision of this standard was initiated because the existing standard was published in 2001 and as such many of the requirements stipulated in the standard need to be review so as to compliment the current market needs.The first meeting to discuss on the revision of the said standard was held on 15/10/2009 and the committee unanimously agreed to the revision of the MS 1517 and requested that the new work item proposal on this standard be issued for approval by ISC B. ISC B based on the justification provided by the committee, agreed to the work item to be registered in the committee’s work programme.The first task undertaken by the committee was to identify the availability of foreign standards on the similar subject matter that could be used to as a reference in the deliberation of the standard.

DISCUSSION ON THE STANDARD

Due to the standard’s technical specification had not been review for almost 8 years since its publication; the contents of the standard need to be revised extensively so as the standard’s technical content complies with the current practices.Nevertheless, the scope of the standard was maintained as it is i.e. specifying the requirements for organic fertilizers.  The standard’s revision exercise took into consideration inputs from the related interested stakeholder such as farmers, producers and plantation operators.

MAJOR MODIFICATIONS

The outcome of the committee’s discussions on the standard ended with the following major modifications as listed below and the first revision of the standard was approved by the Minister as of 14^th February 2012: 

a)         Source of organic fertilizer, where the source for the organic fertilizer shall be declared and shall not contain human and pig waste;

b)         Nutrient content, where the nitrogen (N) content shall not be less than 1.5 %;

c)         Carbon : Nitrogen ratio, where contents of total organic carbon and total nitrogen (as percentage by weight) in the material shall be such that the  ratio is       more than 25:1;.

d)         Heavy metal content was introduced based on Department of Agriculture Malaysia’s data; and

e)         Free from pathogen, where the organic fertilizer shall be free from harmful pathogens such as E-coli less than 1 000 MPN/g and salmonella absent in 25 g.

All of the above modifications that were proposed during the deliberation of the standard was carried out with the objective that the quality and claim of the product of being organic in nature was authentic.

For more information, please contact:

Ms Nageswary S Iyampillai

Secretary TC Fertilizers

Scientific Standards Management and

Consulting Services Section, SIRIM Berhad

Tel: 03-5544 6315, Fax: 03-5510 8830

E-mail address: nages@sirim.my