A recent invention, water retention systems or hydroretention systems open new horizons for farmers and plant professionals. This technique allows significant water savings but also a better productivity. Let's see how this miracle product works.
A recent invention
Sergio Jesùs Rico, a Mexican scientist, nominated for the 'World Water Prize' of the Stockholm Water Institute in 2012, has succeeded in creating a revolutionary product for modern agriculture by solidifying water. How did he make this possible? Simply by gelling it with a biodegradable and non-toxic substance, potassium polyacrylate. This powder is able to store up to 500 times its weight in water and release it progressively according to the plants' needs.
To use it, simply mix the powder into the soil during planting. If it rains or after watering, the water solidifies into granules that vary in size from 3 mm to 1 cm in diameter. The permeable wall of each of these granules allows it to absorb the water but also to release it in very small quantities directly in contact with the roots of the plants.
This technique is already used by farmers who develop crops requiring a large amount of water or in areas where water resources are irregular. This product can also be used in the fields of horticulture, reforestation, arboriculture in the sports sector (golf, soccer fields...), in green spaces, and even in nurseries where 2g per liter of substrate are enough to grow plants in pots.
How is the product packaged?
The water retainers are packaged in pots or bags of varying sizes. Their cost is about 40 € per kilo, which is very profitable when you calculate the savings in water and fertilizers. The average life span of the product is 5 years.
Advantages of water retainers
The advantages of this revolutionary product are numerous among them:
- To make consequent water savings at the planetary level. When we know that 70% of the world's water resources are used by irrigated agriculture and that losses through evaporation and leakage are enormous before they even reach the plants, water retainers are a solution of choice. Irrigation costs with this method are reduced by 50-75%.
- Restructure dry, compact, poor or eroded soils. Indeed, the product allows a better circulation of air and releases oxygen, limits the leaching of fertilizers, reduces the impact of salinity or pollution of the water table and counteracts the irregularity of natural rainfall.
- Produce better and more with less natural resources and energy spent.
Plants cultivated with water retainers extract liquid gradually and according to their needs. Less subject to water stress and nutrient deficiencies, they grow faster, their root and leaf mass is multiplied by 3 or 5 with this method. They are more vigorous, absorb fertilizers better (30% savings) and are much more resistant to diseases.
