Farmers in Nepal Use Urine to Boost Crop Yields
By Smriti Mallapaty and Environmental Health News
Monday, December 17, 2012
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/farmers-in-nepal-use-urine-to-boost-crop-yields/
Summary
In Sotang, Nepal there is a farmer, Budhiman Tamang, whose cabbage is double the average size and it's all thanks to a little experiment that he conducted in 2010. During that year, the Dzi Foundation started a project where around 6,500 residents in Sotang were given a choice between a regular squatting pan and an 'ecological sanitation' (a dual-hole pan that collects urine in a separate basin). Mr. Tamang chose the later and once his 60-liter-urine-tank was filled, he used it to water his 500-square-meter vegetable patch. The results of his experiments were incredible, not only were his cabbages bigger but they also tasted better! Urine consists of mainly water but it also has nutrients that allow plants to grow better, faster, and healthier, making it a wonderful mineral fertilizer. Currently, people are working to re-introduce urine back into agriculture but the process has been slow due to many factors such as accidental fecal pathogens contamination. More research is also needed to see how the urine will affect soil fertility. Despite the slow re-introduction, many other people have already begun switching to urine after seeing the results of so many others who took a chance.
Reflection
I chose this article because the title seemed eye catching and my parents also have a little vegetable garden outback so the information could have been useful. After reading the article, I realized the title meant exactly what it said and thought the thing that was the most interesting was the fact that after urine was added, the vegetables got tastier! I thought that that was a little weird but cool. I suggested to my parents to do the same after telling them about it and was rejected.
Next Steps
The significant thing about this article is that urine is a natural resource that is plentiful and has a lot of nutrients that are beneficial to plants such as nitrogen. Many people already use urine as a method of fertilizer and the results have been incredible so there isn’t any doubt that it will work. It can be something used to replace mined nitrogen and phosphorus and still hold the same results, if not better. It will also be better for the environment because no mining or destroying of any habitat is needed to get urine. Also, the runoff of fields that contain urine and not regular nitrogen and phosphorus, should be a lot better as urine is mainly water and so the small amount of nitrogen in the urine should already be used plants. People are currently trying to re-introduce urine back into agriculture but the process has been slow. Research is also being conducted to find out all the effects of using urine on our food.
In Sotang, Nepal there is a farmer, Budhiman Tamang, whose cabbage is double the average size and it's all thanks to a little experiment that he conducted in 2010. During that year, the Dzi Foundation started a project where around 6,500 residents in Sotang were given a choice between a regular squatting pan and an 'ecological sanitation' (a dual-hole pan that collects urine in a separate basin). Mr. Tamang chose the later and once his 60-liter-urine-tank was filled, he used it to water his 500-square-meter vegetable patch. The results of his experiments were incredible, not only were his cabbages bigger but they also tasted better! Urine consists of mainly water but it also has nutrients that allow plants to grow better, faster, and healthier, making it a wonderful mineral fertilizer. Currently, people are working to re-introduce urine back into agriculture but the process has been slow due to many factors such as accidental fecal pathogens contamination. More research is also needed to see how the urine will affect soil fertility. Despite the slow re-introduction, many other people have already begun switching to urine after seeing the results of so many others who took a chance.
Reflection
I chose this article because the title seemed eye catching and my parents also have a little vegetable garden outback so the information could have been useful. After reading the article, I realized the title meant exactly what it said and thought the thing that was the most interesting was the fact that after urine was added, the vegetables got tastier! I thought that that was a little weird but cool. I suggested to my parents to do the same after telling them about it and was rejected.
Next Steps
The significant thing about this article is that urine is a natural resource that is plentiful and has a lot of nutrients that are beneficial to plants such as nitrogen. Many people already use urine as a method of fertilizer and the results have been incredible so there isn’t any doubt that it will work. It can be something used to replace mined nitrogen and phosphorus and still hold the same results, if not better. It will also be better for the environment because no mining or destroying of any habitat is needed to get urine. Also, the runoff of fields that contain urine and not regular nitrogen and phosphorus, should be a lot better as urine is mainly water and so the small amount of nitrogen in the urine should already be used plants. People are currently trying to re-introduce urine back into agriculture but the process has been slow. Research is also being conducted to find out all the effects of using urine on our food.