Research reveals urine-treated plants yielding bigger bananas

A research project on the effect of human excreta on soil properties and crop growth has revealed that banana plants not only flowered and bore fruit 15 to 20 days in advance, but also weighed substantially more when treated with human urine.

A doctoral study carried out by a research student of University of Agricultural Sciences, UAS, Bangalore, billed as the first of its kind in the country, chose 180 banana plants in a plantation in Nagasandra village, about 50 kms from Bangalore.

The researcher G Sridevi and her assistant poured thousands of litres of urine collected from the village to the banana plants. “Each plant was given 63 litres of urine in six doses”, said Vishwanath S, a representative of Arghyam, an agency that funded the research project.

“These plants flowered and bore fruit 15-20 days before the others. Each bunch of bananas weighed 3 kgs more than those from the normal plants, which had been given fertilizers”, he said. The 150 plants chosen by Sridevi for the research were part of the 800 on an acre of the banana plantation. “The bananas treated with urine were found to be bigger in size”, he said.

The farmers initially turned away Sridevi, a researcher from the Department of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, when she approached them with the research proposal. The farmers were clearly unwilling to work with human waste.

But, Prakash, the owner of the banana plantation, whose crop was subjected to research, said the banana plants treated with urine had yielded a better crop. “Though the urine treated plants grew to a lesser height than normal plants, they have yielded a better crop”, he said.