The Effect of Urine-Derived Fertilizers on Soil Microbiota and Nutritional Contents of Selected Vegetables
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Date
2023-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There is now a growing trend to explore environmentally friendly, low cost and effective soil fertility techniques in substitute of chemicals that applied to the soil. Application of human urine is being used as organic fertilizer because of its nutrient rich and pathogen free nature. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of human urine fertilizers on soil microbial community and nutritional values of the plant by comparing it with widely used chemical fertilizer. On this specific study four different vegetables: Cabbage, Ethiopian kale, Carrot and Tomato were used as experimental subjects in green house condition. Five different treatments (Stored urine, struvite urine, chemical fertilizer and unfertilized and control) with twice replication of each were used for this experiment. The plants grown by these different treatments in soil were measured for their nutritional content values and physiological characters. Soil sample obtained from each of
experimental pots were also used to elaborate the effects of chemical and organic fertilizers (urine) on the microbial community of soil. Shotgun metagenomic analysis was used to assess the distribution of soil microbial community at phylum and genus level upon the application of various fertilizers. In all selected plants, the distribution of the identified bacterial groups was relatively better in struvite urine fertilized soil than unfertilized ones. This was the same both in Phylum and genus levels. In carrot, struvite urine fertilized soil showed better composition of identified bacteria compared to chemical treated soil both at phylum and genus levels. In Ethiopian kale, the soil bacterial community distributed better in stored urine fertilized soil than both struvite urine treated
soil and unfertilized soil. The nutritional analysis section of this study concluded that there was no significant difference in nutritional values of the plants treated with different fertilizers. However, the phosphorous, nitrogen and protein contents were slightly higher in plants fertilized with organic fertilizers while moisture contents were slightly higher on those plants treated with chemical fertilizers.
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Fertilizer, Shotgun Metagenomics, Human Urine, Organic, Soil, Vegetable