Ecological Sanitation…… Reuse of Human Excreta

Ecological Sanitation (ECOSAN) is an interesting and pleasant thing for me because “it is the rebirth of our old sanitation practices.” We people know that from ancient times human excreta were used in agriculture and still can be used. For example lands near to village have good yield then far lands because children and people use to go for defecation on those lands. In Villages also we will find that farmers called the goat owners to leave their goats in their lands so that the excreta and urine of these goats fertile the land.

He is using manure from human excreta for last two and half years in different type of crops. Mostly finds that his yield is equal or more then the farmers who were using Chemical Fertilizer in their crops. For experiment he has used manure from human excreta in different crops like Wheat, Brinjal, Spinach (Palak), Beans, Lady Finger (Bhindi), Coriander (Dhania), Ridge Ground (Tori), Bottle Ground (Lauke), Soya & different cattle feeds.

Use Methods:

From Ecosan Toilets we get two types of Manures one is Dry Manure from Feaces and the Liquid Urea from Urine. Both these manures were rich in nitrogen & other nutrients. Below table show the NPK quantity in these manures.

Manure from Feaces: The Manure which is generated from human feaces is a soil conditioner which improves the water holding capacity of the soil. It is used 10-15 days before seeding. But before using the manure from human excreta, it should be properly treated. In the Ecosan Toilet from where he gets manure is treated using alkaline method of treating human feaces.

Urine Instead of Urea: Urine is the liquid form of urea. Urine is rich of Nitrogen, Potassium and phosphorus. We can use is directly or dilute with water on plant roots. The other methods used are we can use it just one night before seeding mixing it with soil or we can use one day before at the time of ploughing for seeding. The output result will visible within two-three days of use.

Some Experiments: The result of using human manure and urine as fertilizer is satisfactory because not only the yield is good but the fertile power of land also increased. Below are some crops where urine and feaces are used as fertilizer and their results.

Wheat: Wheat is the primary crop of this region. At the time of seeding he used 400 liters of urine per acre directly in soil. The quantity and quality of yield is same as the yield from lands used chemical fertilizers. Twice this crop was cultivated but none of time the compost was used.

Maize (Juwar) & Barsim: This is one type of cattle feed cultivated after wheat. To experiment he has divided the whole land into two parts in one part he used urine and the part nothing. The yield from the urine use land is just double of the other part of land. In this crop he used urine after dilution with water (1:10) on to the roots. The profit also just double from other farmers because no use of chemical urea.

Brinjal: For cultivation of brinjal urine was also used. For the first time brinjal cultivation unknowingly urine was used on the top of leaves, because of this all the leaves were burn after that for all crops urine was used in root or mixed with soil. For one acre of land liters of urine was used. Here urine was used twice, once at the time of seeding and when plants were grown. Brinjal was sect porn cultivation but after use of urine the insect problem also solved. It means, the use urine can also minimize use of pesticide in agriculture. The growth of plants and size of brinjal was quite big.

Spinach (Palak), Coriander (Dhania): These are leaves used as vegetable, as an experiment he used urine in coriander (Dhania), because the quantity of urine is little bit more, all the plants died of burn. After that the quantity of urine reduced by some %, the growth was satisfactory and the yield was like other farmers.

Beans: For the first time both human compost and urine was used in this crop. Human compost was used at the time of ploughing so that it can easily mix with soil and if there are some pathogen those can also killed. Here urine is used at the time of seeding and 15 days after seeding. The size of the beans was quite good and yield was good compare to other farmers.
Ridge Ground (Tori), Bottle Ground (Lauke), Lady Finger (Bhindi) : All these three crops were seeded at one time, and urine was used at the time of seeding. No other fertilizer or pesticides were used for these crops. Yield of both Ridge Ground (Tori), Bottle Ground (Lauke) were good but the yield of Lady Finger (Bhindi) was not so good because of insect. Lady Finger (Bhindi) requires more pesticides in such land types but he had not used any pesticides so the yield was not satisfactory.

Conclusion

As per his experience of using Human Excreta as Fertilizer for last two and half years, he thinks that in good conditions like good water supply, good quality seeds and proper care we can yield more crop from our same land using human faces and urine as fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizer. Manure from human excreta is better than chemical fertilizer because it improves your yield as well as your lands fertility. It also prevents affecting food chain from different chemical ingredients. If we people under this traditional sanitation practice and recycle the human excreta and use it as fertilizer we can fulfill the shortage of fertilizer in the country because it is in our hands.