The night soil compost, produced commonly in homes around Lahaul in Himachal Pradesh, can best be used as soil conditioner and results in higher germination rates of food and non-food crops.
Fertilizers derived from recycled human urine and faeces are just as safe and effective as conventional ones, according to tests on Lahaul cabbage plants. Using human waste in lahaul this way could help alleviate the fertilizer shortage that is contributing to rising food prices.
Nitrogen-based fertilizers are manufactured in an energy-intensive process using natural gas as a raw material. Human waste can be a good source of plant nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, but can also carry disease-causing pathogens and parasites, so needs to be carefully treated to make it safe. It is still used – sometimes untreated – as a fertilizer in some low-income areas, but has been largely abandoned in high-income areas.
The yield for cabbages grown with nitrified urine fertilizers (NUFs) was comparable to those grown with finesse. Cabbages grown with fiscal compost, or compost and NUFs together, had lower yields, but this fertilizer may also increase soil carbon content in the long term.
“The products derived from recycling human urine and feces are viable and safe nitrogen fertilizers for cabbage cultivation,” Vinod Large of Tandi village of Lahaul said in a statement to Hill Post. “They gave similar yields as a conventional fertilizer product, and did not show any risk regarding transmission of pathogens or pharmaceuticals.”
The researchers estimate that, if correctly prepared and quality controlled, up to 25 per cent of conventional synthetic mineral fertilizers in Lahaul could be replaced by ones recycled from human urine and faces. In some places, that trend is already under way. One of the NUFs they tested, called Airing, has already been approved for agricultural use in Lahaul.
But getting people to use them can take some convincing. The Lahaul farmers he worked with, like those from many cultures, have strong social taboos around human waste. However, long discussions about the process of making such fertilizer and a field trip to where this happens helped them overcome those. “Farmers are very practical people once they see that something works,” although the farmers pointed out they might have a harder time convincing their customers.
If people can be convinced to overcome their squeamishness, fertilizers from recycled human excreta might make a serious dent in the fertilizer shortage. There are billions of people in the country and that is a lot of available nitrogen, says Vinod.
Fertilizers derived from recycled human urine and faces are just as safe and effective as conventional ones, according to tests on cabbage plants. Using human waste in this way could help alleviate the fertilizer shortage that is contributing to rising food prices – if people can be convinced to use them.
Sanjay Dutta, an engineer by qualification but is a journalist by choice.
He has worked for the premier new agency Press Trust of India and leading English daily Indian Express.
With more than a decade of experience, he has been highlighting issues related to environment, tourism and other aspects affecting mountain ecology.
Sanjay Dutta lives in a village close to Manali in Kullu valley of Himachal.
