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Testing the use of human urine as a natural fertilizer for crops:
Humans have known for thousands of years that their urine is an excellent fertilizer for crops. It contains phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium—many of the same ingredients as commercial fertilizers. But because of the squeamishness associated with using urine to grow crops, its use has been limited. [...]
The first step in the experiment involved renaming urine because its common name was considered offensive. They settled on Oga. Next, they separated the farmers into two groups; one ran their farms in the traditional way, the other fertilized their wheat using Oga. Over two growing seasons, crop yields were measured for both groups. The Oga for the second group of 27 farmers was provided by the farmers themselves, who were taught how to pasteurize, store and dilute their urine for use as fertilizer. They also added small amounts of animal manure.
The data collected from the farms showed that those that had been fertilized using Oga produced on average 30% more grain than the traditional farms. The researchers note that the differences were so great that other women in the region began emulating those in the experiment. Two years after the experiment, they found that more than a thousand women farmers were using Oga to fertilize their crops.
Journal Reference:
Moussa, Hannatou O., Nwankwo, Charles I., Aminou, Ali M., et al. Sanitized human urine (Oga) as a fertilizer auto-innovation from women farmers in Niger [open], Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s13593-021-00675-2
(Score: 2, Funny) by NPC-131072 on Wednesday June 22 2022, @08:06PM (2 children)
Hello fren,
What's offensive? This is an inclusive "front hole fertilizer". It works the same for anyone who defines themselves as a woman.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 22 2022, @09:46PM (1 child)
The simple answer is that you tell people it's fertilizer because you want to compare it to fertilizer and telling people it's urine, or whatever substance they are testing, could bias the results.
It is sad that I need to explain such basic science in this day and age....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 23 2022, @12:01PM
It is very much sadder that you now go and call that bucket of piss "basic science" and expect not to be immediately laughed out.
It is precisely what was said; we, the civilization, have pissed our science away. In its place, silly fucks doing silly rituals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult [wikipedia.org]