Source: modernfarmer.com

There is no clean way to say this but…sewage sludge might just be the next thing to help grow the produce you consume. A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition states that thermally conditioned sewage sludge could replace commercial chemical fertilizer as a sustainable option for improving soil properties. The greatest advantage of this alternative fertilizer is that it re-uses essential and finite phosphorus resources, which are commonly sourced from non-renewable phosphate rocks.

Sewage sludge is now a readily available substitute of commercial fertilizers in agriculture due to technological improvements that have increased the phosphorus content of it. Therefore, Andry Andriamananjara from the University of Antananarivo (Madagascar), along with his colleagues, decided to assess its effectiveness using a phosphorus radiotracer technique to measure the availability of phosphorus for plants in thermally conditioned sewage sludge.

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