(Image source from: Nitin Gadkari’s gardening tip fails to impres})

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that people should use urine for healthy growth of plants. Addressing a gathering in Nagpur Sunday, he said he had been using the “therapy” for the plants at his Delhi residence.

“Daily, I collect urine in a 50-litre can. It is then used for the plants in my New Delhi residence,” Gadkari said. He claimed that plants that got “urine therapy” showed better growth than those that got “plain water”.

Stating that there was a scientific reason behind this, he said “urine has abundant urea and nitrogen compounds, which nourish the plants.” He said soon urine could emerge as a cheap alternative to fertilizer.

 “This is free homemade fertilizer,” “I’m only telling you about urine, and not going further than that”, he added.

He said nutrients such as nitrogen help plant growth, echoing farming tip going back centuries.

A Television channel reported that Gadkari was at a workshop organized by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on tackling drought.

Gadkari, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, sends vegetables from his garden to next-door neighbor Sonia Gandhi, the president of main opposition Congress party, the Economic Times reported on 15 April.

- Manohar. M