New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has floated the idea of setting up urine banks, in order to produce urea locally.

A media report quoted Gadkari as saying that the banks should be set up in every tehsil so that farmers do not have to use imported urea.

The minister further said that the idea was at a nascent stage and that work was being done on the same, in collaboration with Swedish scientists.

"Human urine contains a lot of nitrogen... We already have organic substitutes for phosphorous and potassium,” Gadkari said, adding that initial lab tests will be carried out in Dhapewada village, near Nagpur.

“Farmers,” he added, “will be expected to take the urine to taluka centres in 10-litre cans.”

The minister had recently claimed that about 10 crore trees will be planted under the Ganga Tree Plantation programme on the river banks, from Haridwar to Kolkata.