Enhancing Maize Productivity: Assessing Human Urine as a Sustainable Top-Dressing Fertilizer | InformativeBD

Douglas Marowa, from the different institute of India.  wrote a Research Article about, Enhancing Maize Productivity: Assessing Human Urine as a Sustainable Top-Dressing Fertilizer. Entitled, Sustainable agriculture for food security: An assessment on the influence of human urine on maize (Zea mays) productivity as a top dressing fertilizer. This research paper published by the International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research (IJAAR). an open access scholarly research journal on Agronomy. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

The world’s agriculture and food systems are not presently delivering desirable outcomes on food security, hence threatening attainment of second sustainable development goal, which has a commitment to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture’ by 2030. The research sought to assess the influence of Human Urine on maize productivity as a top dressing fertilizer and remove sceptical view on the use of Human Urine. An experimental research was carried out at a homestead in Marange communal area. Randomize complete block design of three treatments; Human Urine, Ammonium Nitrate and Untreated were replicated three times. The Spearmen’s Rank Correlation Coefficient method was used. Results revealed that the Human Urine treatment had a high incremental growth rate and 3.7 tonnes per hectare at harvesting, which was a good yield for a household in the rural area and would have enough maize grain for the year. The research concur with the reviewed literature that human urine would influence the growth rate and the productivity of crops. It revealed that there was a positive relationship between plant growth and the plant productivity. The researcher concluded that Human Urine has influence on the maize productivity and if promoted could improve food security in the study area. The promotion of biological fertilizer like Human Urine would increase crop production and household food security in the country of Zimbabwe. Further research on the influence of the human urine as a top dressing fertiliser on other cereal crops in Zimbabwe. 

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Introduction

The world’s agriculture and food systems are not presently delivering desirable outcomes on food security and nutrition (Edmundo et al., 2020). In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted, with SDG2 committing to ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture’ by 2030 (Edmundo et al., 2020). The SDGs recognized, well beyond previous global goals, the strong interconnectivity among development goals. Thus, issues of hunger and malnutrition are linked to issues of equity, justice and employment, along with environmental sustainability hence the need for holistic approaches. Maize production in Zimbabwe has been generally on the decline especially in the recent past years, which has been influenced by the global and economic climate. FAO (2010) reviewed that globally about 925 million people remained food insecure in 2010. FAO (2019) revealed that the average maize production in Zimbabwe has been going down, averaging 1,313,000 tonnes in the years 1996/97 to 2017, 2018 the yield was 970,000 tonnes, 2019 the yield was 830, 000, then 2020 was estimated to go down further to 777,000 tonnes. As the economy continue to dwindle, rural farmers had not been able to purchase fertilizers due to their ever escalating prizes and this has subsequently witnessed the reduction on maize yield. Mashingaidze (2004) indicated that the fertilizer manufacturers have been operating below capacity since the mid-1990s due to general shortage of foreign currency, which subsequently caused fertilizers to be a rare commodity to be assessed by especially smallholder farmers due to its prohibitive costs, caused by the high cost of foreign exchange sourced in the black market.

Maize production in Zimbabwe has been generally on the decline especially in the recent past years, which has been influenced by the global and economic climate. FAO (2010) reviewed that globally about 925 million people remained food insecure in 2010. FAO (2019) revealed that the average maize production in Zimbabwe has been going down, averaging 1,313,000 tonnes in the years 1996/97 to 2017, 2018 the yield was 970,000 tonnes, 2019 the yield was 830, 000, then 2020 was estimated to go down further to 777,000 tonnes. As the economy continue to dwindle, rural farmers had not been able to purchase fertilizers due to their ever escalating prizes and this has subsequently witnessed the reduction on maize yield. Mashingaidze (2004) indicated that the fertilizer manufacturers have been operating below capacity since the mid-1990s due to general shortage of foreign currency, which subsequently caused fertilizers to be a rare commodity to be assessed by especially smallholder farmers due to its prohibitive costs, caused by the high cost of foreign exchange sourced in the black market. The green revolution in agriculture led many people to forget about basic ecological rules in agriculture that include the use of animal waste to fertilize their crops. In a balanced ecosystems urine fertilizes the soil and thus helps plants to grow, hence the need to harness human urine in particular to boost maize production as some farmers may not alternatively have animals especially cattle to tap the urine. Human Urine as a biological fertiliser, according to Kirchmann and Petterson (1994) studies have shown that stored human urine has pH values of 8.9, nitrogen was mainly (> 90%) present as ammoniacal nitrogen, with ammonium bicarbonate being the dominant compound. Urea and urate decomposed during storage. Heavy metal concentrations in urine samples were low compared with other organic fertilizers, but copper, mercury, nickel and zinc were 10-500 times higher in urine than in precipitation and surface waters (Kirchmann and Petterson, 1994). In a pot experiment with15N labelled human urine, higher gaseous losses and lower crop uptake (barley) of urine N than of labelled ammonium nitrate were found. Phosphorus present in urine was utilized at a higher rate than soluble phosphate, showing that urine P is at least as available to crops as soluble P fertilizers (Kirchmann and Petterson, 1994).

However, despite these positive and importance facts about human urine, its uses is relatively rare because of lack of promotion of biological fertilisers, inadequate knowledge and the public still skeptical. This research proposed to test human urine on maize, being the target species as the staple diet of the people of Zimbabwe.

Steinfeld (2004) revealed that Human urine is one of the fastest-acting, excellent sources of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and trace elements for plants, delivered in a form that is perfect for assimilation.

Not only that, there is a constant, year round supply of it and it is free. Most of the arable lands in Zimbabwe are characterized by highly degraded areas and infertile soils hence low production in maize yield. The cost of buying inorganic fertilizers has just become unbearable. Maize crop yields have continued to deteriorate mainly due to the above-cited challenges. Hence, the need to research on the use of Human Urine in order to address the problem low production, poor soil fertility and reduce production cost as farmers would avoid purchasing expensive inorganic fertilizer like ammonium nitrate.

Mashingaidze (2004) reviewed that despite the government having been subsidizing fertilizers through input schemes in the past, it has never been enough for most of the farmers in the country, especially in the smallholder farming sectors. The questions remain, “Can farmers use human urine as fertilizer in maize production? Is urine good for the maize plant? Will urine kill the plants? Is urine good for the soil? “The research sought to assess the influence of Human Urine on maize productivity as a top dressing fertilizer. This was done so as to recommend its suitability as sustainable agriculture input that is found locallly, cheap and affordable top dressing fertilizer to farmers in the study area. It will also help to remove the skeptical view on the use of Human Urine by farmers.

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