The regulation on fertilizers was established in the 1970s at European level while in Italy, within the regulatory framework, it has its origin in Law 748/1984 which gives specific definitions for:

• • “fertilizer” means “any substance that, due to its content in nutrients or its peculiar chemical, physical and biological characteristics contributes to the improvement of the fertility of the agricultural land or to the nourishment of the cultivated plant species or, in any case, to their better development” and includes mineral, organic and organic-mineral products, which are divided into “fertilizers” and “soil improvers and correctors“.
  • “manure” means “any substance, natural or synthetic, mineral or organic, suitable to provide the crops with the chemical element or elements of fertility necessary for the development of their vegetative and productive cycle, in the forms and solubility provided for by this law“.
  • “soil improver and corrector” means “any substance, natural or synthetic, mineral or organic, capable of modifying and improving the chemical, physical, biological and mechanical properties and characteristics of a soil“.

Today, the regulation on fertilizers has been updated through Legislative Decree 75/2010 concerning the “Reorganization and revision of regulations on fertilizers, pursuant to Article 13 of Law of 7 July 2009, no. 88”.