(a)
(1) All manufacturers, jobbers, and manipulators of commercial fertilizers and of fertilizer materials to be used in the manufacture of fertilizer, who may desire to sell or offer for sale in Arkansas fertilizer and fertilizer materials, shall first file for registration with the State Plant Board, upon forms furnished by the board. The forms shall include the name of the brand of each fertilizer, fertilizer materials, or chemicals which they may desire to sell in the state, either by themselves or their agents, together with the names and addresses of the manufacturers or manipulators, and such other information as may be required by the board in its rules.
(2) A registrant shall not be required to register each grade of fertilizer that is formulated but shall report the mixed formulations on a monthly basis as required by § 2-19-209.
(3) All registrations must be approved by the board or its authorized agent before being effective.
(4) Registrations may be cancelled by the board for repeated flagrant violations of this subchapter, after notice and a hearing.
(5)
(A) Each commercial fertilizer registrant shall report the guaranteed analysis by net weight of each registered fertilizer brand and the name and address of the registrant.
(B) Except for specialty fertilizers as defined in subdivision (d)(2) of this section, no guaranteed analysis of complete fertilizer shall be allowed indicating fractional units of primary plant food.
(C) Raw materials may be registered under a guarantee of the actual plant food content.
(D) In the case of bone meal, the phosphoric acid content shall be stated as a total, and its actual nitrogen content shall be stated.
(E) In the case of rock phosphate, both the total and available phosphoric acid content shall be stated.
(b)
(1) All manufacturers, jobbers, blenders, and manipulators of commercial fertilizers and of fertilizer materials to be used in the manufacture of fertilizer, who may desire to sell or offer for sale in Arkansas fertilizer or fertilizer materials, shall first obtain a facility license from the board for each fertilizer blending or bulk storage facility which they operate.
(2) After notice and hearing, the board shall, by rules, promulgate the standards and criteria which it determines are necessary to license fertilizer blending or bulk storage facilities.
(c)
(1)
(A) The board may, under its rules, set and collect reasonable fertilizer brand registration and facility licensing fees.
(B) The fees shall be deposited into the Plant Board Fund of the State Treasury.
(2) All registrations shall expire on June 30 of each year.
(d) Any commercial fertilizer sold must contain a minimum of twenty (20) units of primary plant food, except for the following exemptions for special agricultural crop fertilizer formulations and for specialty fertilizers:
(1)
(A) Commercial fertilizers which are needed in special cases for special agricultural crop uses shall be permitted to be sold in less than the combined twenty-unit minimum of primary plant food elements.
(B)
(i) The special agricultural crop-use fertilizers with less than the twenty-unit minimum shall be permitted for sale only after the fertilizer grade is registered with the board.
(ii) In order to register the fertilizer grade, the applicant shall submit a written justification which shall show the need for such special fertilizer grade and shall include the fertilizer materials to be used in the special agricultural crop fertilizer formulation.
(iii) The board or its designee shall evaluate the formulation based on criteria established by rules of the board; and
(2)
(A) A “specialty fertilizer” is any fertilizer distributed primarily for nonfarm use, such as for home gardens, lawns, shrubs, flowers, golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries, greenhouses, and nurseries.
(B) “Specialty fertilizer” includes a fertilizer used for research or experimental purposes.