Use of urine as fertilizer (Malawi)

Urine is a sanitation product contains the majority of the nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. In Malawi inorganic fertilizer which is very expensive and difficult to access especially by smallholder farmers is commonly used. Urine can be an effective fertilizer because it is rich in nutrients. It accounts for up to 88% of total nitrogen, 67% of total phosphorus, and 73% of total potassium found in wastewater. The presence of pharmaceuticals raises concerns for the application of urine as a fertilizer because they may enter the food chain and pose risk for the environment and public health. The study assessed used treatments to determine; what recovered nitrogen and what type of container in terms of color for collection of urine in storage best retained nitrogen. The sample was collected from one entrepreneur from Msungwi market in Lilongwe, Malawi, the participant owned ecosan toilets and collects urine for sale to farmers. 15 liters were bought in plastic bottles to the laboratory. These were put in 200 ml bottles and treatments were administered in these and replicated three times. The results were all significant at p<.001, sawdust as treatments in urine showed the highest significance. These results showed that an organic fertilizer have been found which is rich in nutrients and cheap especially sawdust which can be sourced at zero cost and free from contaminants because of some treatments like pasteurized and charcoal which removes contaminants of pharmaceutical nature. The study recommended farmers to be treating urine to account for the lost nitrogen, kill microbes and remove pollutants and use it as fertilizer.