Bengaluru: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari rooting for urine therapy has found support from a prominent city based NGO which has cited a scientific study finding that human urine is a great source of nutrients and can be used as fertiliser.
As Gadkari's human urine-linked gardening tip raised eyebrows and drew derision by some in social media, the theory was backed today by Arghyam, a city based public charitable foundation founded by Rohini Nilekani, wife of IT czar and former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, who also headed the Unique Identification Authority of India.
The trust said a study supported by it provides evidence that human urine is a great source of nutrients and can be used as fertiliser. "A pioneering research study done by University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Bangalore and supported by Arghyam is topical and interesting in the light of today's discussion around the use of human urine as fertiliser," said a statement by Arghyam.
"This study provides evidence that human urine is, in fact, a great source of nutrients and can be used as fertiliser," it said. Arghyam, whose work rests upon a personal endowment from Rohini Nilekani, grants funds to organisations, which implement and manage groundwater and sanitation projects in India.
The research project on human urine was conducted at the Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, which was supported by Arghyam.
It was part of doctoral study done by G Sridevi under the guidance of Prof C A Srinivasamurthy on the reuse of human urine in agriculture titled "Studies on the effect of Anthropogenic Liquid Waste (ALW) on soil properties and crop growth", submitted in October 2008, it said.
The study tested the hypothesis that application of human urine as a nutrient source has a positive impact on soil properties and plant growth. This hypothesis was tested on three crops - maize, banana and radish, and randomised study design was used that includes laboratory study, field based study, and potted plant study.
The finding of the study suggests that the analysis of data indicated that the use of human urine (in combination with gypsum) led to healthier crop growth, building of higher nutrient content and mass in the grain/fruit/root of the respective crops, and the cost-benefit ratio was found to be marginally better than chemical fertilisers, it said. Background for the study states- evidence indicates that the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) that is generated from human urine is wasted on a huge scale, and can be effectively utilised to meet the NPK needs of the agricultural sector in India.
A number of studies in different parts of the world (India, Nepal, China, Japan) have demonstrated that ALW or human urine has been used successfully to grow crops, and that human faeces has been used as compost in the Netherlands and Africa, it said.
At an event in Nagpur, Gadkari had said that plants in his kitchen garden grew exponentially after he watered them with urine. Talking about his experiment in Delhi, the union minister had said he had started storing his urine in a 50 litre can at his official residence in Delhi. "An acre of organic farming is possible on the bungalow premises, which even has trees. I instructed my gardener to try urine on one tree and plain water on others. Urine is a manure which has urea and nitrogen," said Gadkari.
Comments
0 comment