The researchers concluded that urine produced by one person for a year can be enough to grow 160 heads of cabbage, equivalent to 64 kg, more than a similar amount of commercial fertilizer
Poor farmers don't have to go far in search of free fertilizer, according to a study that found human urine is a good source of nitrogen and other minerals. Apart from the "yikes" effect, the scientists who used urine to help grow a lush field of cabbage say that using urine is not such a bad idea.
"Urine is a valuable fertilizer that poor people can use to increase productivity without polluting the environment. It is a resource, not a pollutant, if it is managed correctly, says Halvi Hanionen-Tansaki, head of the research group at the Department of Environmental Sciences at Kupio University in Finland.
The researchers wanted to examine how human urine can be used to help farmers and at the same time save water and reduce the amount of factors that pollute the water. Surendra Pradhan, a research student at the university and the lead researcher on the project, noted that this issue is particularly important for areas that are not connected to the sewer network.
The use of urine as fertilizer is not common but is increasing in some areas of Finland, the researchers say. It is used to fertilize barley and cucumber crops. This is according to the research. "We assume that the nitrogen content in human urine can be used as a good fertilizer for many edible plants," says Pradhan. The researchers chose cabbage as the test plant because it needs a lot of nitrogen, it is common all over the world and can be preserved as sauerkraut.
The cabbage fertilized with human urine was compared to a similar crop of cabbage that was not fertilized and a similar sized crop fertilized by conventional means. At harvest, the urine-fertilized cabbage had several advantages: it was slightly larger, it grew to its maximum height faster, and for most of the growing cycle, it suffered less damage from insects resistant to the commercial fertilizers.
Cabbage from all three crops was pickled and given a taste test by 20 panelists. Each type of cabbage had a different taste, but all were classified as good according to the study.
In light of the findings, the researchers concluded that urine produced by one person for a year can be enough to grow 160 heads of cabbage, equivalent to 64 kg, more than a similar amount of commercial fertilizer. They recommend collecting urine in ultrasonic toilet facilities, storing it and spreading it on the soil around the plant and not directly on the leaves.
According to the study, which is expected to be published in the upcoming issue of the journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry, it is therefore clear that drinking urine should not help the human body as it helps plants, for the information of Scout Grant.
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This is an old idea that has been implemented in the Knesset for years, the politicians "fertilize" the public all the time.
A good idea.
Don't they do it already, in some parts of the country?
First of all, I notice that when talking about poop and pee, all the science readers participate in the experience, and tell from their experience, strengthened and adopted.
With your permission, I also want to enter the "pee experience" with an idea for dairy farmers.
After all, it is known that every average cow urinates a little more than a human being, so maybe it's better to think big already!.
For example, in the dairy itself while milking the cow, a parallel system must be made to collect urine, and as you know the suction means are quite similar and their location should be close. Of course, the same means can also be used when we have to decide what comes first, or what is better, a little milk in the urine, or a little "fragrance" in the milk.
Then, of course, in the reports of the kibbutz movement and of Tnuva, an exciting article will be published about the champion cow "Shula"
who peed above everyone else.
So have a good day!
Sabdarmish Yehuda
post Scriptum. Please note, anyone who acts on my optimization proposal does so at their own risk!
I want to see how many people would be willing to buy cabbage watered with human urine…. That sounds really disgusting to me.
Several possible problems:
1. As stated here, urine and feces have been used as fertilizers for thousands of years in agricultural societies. The problem is that in some societies, the farmers are infected with intestinal parasites whose eggs and larvae leave the body through the feces (and possibly through the urine as well). The use of urine/faeces as organic fertilizer may lead to infection of the crop and through it also humans.
2. If I'm not mistaken, urine breaks down into different components spontaneously after a few days. If we do come to the conclusion that it is worth using urine as fertilizer, we will have to create very special systems that will preserve the urine in its original state (not an easy thing) or that will flow it immediately for agricultural use (a complex engineering project, and perhaps impossible to implement effectively).
But a good and interesting article. I hope that if these problems are solved, we can get a cheap and effective source of fertilizer, which is less harmful to the soil and groundwater.
Also, urine is an organic fertilizer
Urine on the leaves causes chastity!!!
What is the average nitrogen % in urine? What other micro elements are there in it?, doesn't it leave sediments in the Tiptoff water tank? . The price of a liter of liquid nitrogen fertilizer (Uran 28%)
is about 1.6 NIS, so the price of a liter of urine can reach up to 2 NIS
Leami Bachar..I was convinced that your suggestions sound good, too good for them to be carried out!!
Maybe we'll add some difficulties to them like in the action movies where the plane always explodes a second after the hero jumped out of it or is within a safe range like the above movie bombs... they manage to disconnect the wire and neutralize only at the last second!
If we say that the fish will vomit at first and shut down the sea... maybe that will speak more to the government!
By the way, you must not tell the government that it won't cost much!! This is a death sentence for the project! It should be said that even though it will cost a fortune.. the environmental profit it will give in (as many years as possible.. so that there will be more jobs) twenty years or so is worth every penny!
I offer first!
Urine, aged, in whiskey bottles aged in an oak barrel for more than 12 years, 120 NIS per half liter.
Urine is sterile and therefore it should not be a problem to spread it on the leaves as well. For the same reason, there should also be no special reason (except for the same yuck effect) to fear various pollutants or sanitary matters.
This idea exists and has recently started to be explored, but in my opinion the general use and utilization of waste water is not enough. Most of the sewage goes into the sea or is dumped where it is. Some of them are indeed settled for agriculture, but the infrastructure makes the whole business quite expensive.
If there were pipes for special reservoirs in the houses that go from the toilets to a separate sewer, then it would be possible in an orderly, cheap and above all almost completely natural (microbial) way to purify the sewage (from the principle level to the level of drinking water - although here there is a very large yuck effect) and at intermediate levels that would be Good for fertilization and agricultural irrigation.
I would spread the surplus (sludge) in the heart of the ocean as a nitrogen/zorous/iron fertilizer, thereby blooming the "blue desert" and causing the growth of phytoplankton populations that will assimilate carbon from the atmosphere and deposit it in the ocean floor. Also, the phytoplankton population will allow the growth of a food chain and create natural fishing areas that do not exist today.
This way we gained three different things:
1) Non-polluting wastewater disposal
2) assimilating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reducing its concentration -> which will cause a reduction in the greenhouse effect due to the emission of combustion products of fossil fuels
3) Enrichment of the world's fish stock which is depleting at a frightening rate
What's amazing.. the question is how many buyers!
Let's see who will have the commercial sense to produce bottles for filling urine at home! Or better than that...a company that will distribute special urinals (the time has come) and in return will have urine for sale...as long as they don't spill water inside so that the precious fertilizer doesn't spoil!!
It's really amazing because since time immemorial human excrement has been used for home crops
So what have we returned to the sources?
Amazing! This can solve a lot of problems in the land of people
We need to be more open-minded