Maharashtra's agriculture minister asks farmers to use human urine for farming

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse has a plan for an organic farming policy which involves transporting urine from cinema halls and multiplexes, “where it can be collected in bulk”, and sent to farmers in rural areas of Maharashtra.

The human urine, according to Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse, could be transported from multiplexes in Mumbai, where human urine is available in bulk after intervals of movie screenings. Recently, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had disclosed that he uses urine for gardening and farming purposes in his garden to make them produce more effectively and that he stores his urine in a 50-litre can for the purpose.

Khadse claimed an experiment on the same lines had been carried out at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, an agricultural university in Rahuri town of Ahmednagar district, at the government’s behest. “They have been successful in it. It works,” he said.

The farming community will be encouraged where farmers from few villages will come together and promote among the farmers on usage of human urine instead of costly fertilisers.

Khadse also said the government’s endorsement of organic farming and use of human urine as part of this policy is not new, but repeated experiments by state universities have confirmed that the use of traditional fertilisers is making land in rural area less fertile day by day, but that cow urine and human urine have helped keep land fertile for a longer period.

Khadse said, “The policy would subsequently be implemented across the state. It has to be introduced in the state Cabinet first, from where it will go to the two houses for approval and only later be deemed official,” he added.