Challenge
Large inequities in water and food accessibility exists in Turkey. Farmers and refugees living in the arid regions of the southeast struggle to gain access to land and precious resources like freshwater. Currently, the region is home to two million Syrian refugees. With this demand for water and space, the pressure on groundwater sources during the six months dry period starting in April, is enormous.
Solution
Waterpads, through the organization MetaMeta Research B.V., increases water efficiency in the international vegetable and fruit tree sector through their low-cost water buffering technology. This innovation is essential for water-deprived farmers who need to grow a lot of food with just a little bit of water. The low weight polymer pads are placed close to the roots of plants, avoiding evaporation and the loss of useful runoff water.
Waterpads are a sandwich of paper and jute with an inner layer of granular polymers in dry form. The polymer absorbs 100 times its own weight of water, retaining water at binding tension.
Placed at root level, the pads increase farmers’ irrigation efficiency by 40%, while increasing yields between 10 and 25%. With this technology, young plants and trees are significantly more likely to survive the dry times. Costing about mere pennies per plant with lifetime of 5 years, Waterpads are low-cost, easy to produce and reliable for farmers in arid regions.
Goals
- Increase the likelihood of young plants and trees to survive the dry times.
- Provide low-cost Waterpads for farmers in arid regions.
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