Closing the loop – when life is at stake

A few years ago I read a book that really hit home. For the first time I understood what closing the loop really means. The amount of nutrients in the food we eat can be found in urine and faeces. In other words, the excreta from a human being contain exactly the amount of nutrients needed to grow the food we eat!

The knowledge of closing the loop between man and soil is not common knowledge in the rich part of the world. Mineral fertilizers have, to a large extent, supplied agriculture with nutrients which means that we don’t need to consider using urine and faeces as fertilizers. But this ”luxury” will not last forever. The use of mineral fertilizers depends on finite resources of phosphorous and cheap energy.

In West African Niger, more than 80% of the population are farmers, and most of these are subsistence farmers. The knowledge of closing the loop can mean life or death to a farmer who has no possibility to buy mineral fertilizers. In Aguié, a rural district, a project to launch urine as a fertilizer has given amazing results. It turns out that urine and faeces from one family during one year corresponds to 100 kg of mineral fertilizer, something that few farmers can buy. As a result of the project, simple toilets are built in the region to collect the new fertilizers.

Actually, in Aguié, agricultural extension is taking the lead in the "sanitation and agricultural revolution". Maazou Sanda is one of the advisors :

« The demonstration trials speak for themselves. For me it is evident. The poor soils and the expensive mineral fertilizers make the population ready to do anything to increase the yields. And with productive sanitation we get improved health as an added benefit ! »

In a couple of decades we will be travelling to Niger to learn about closing the loop. When life is at stake solutions like this really mean something.

 





Linus Dagerskog
Expert on sustainable sanitation solutions at CREPA, Burkina Faso