Challenge
In MENA countries, a rising demand for agricultural products combined with a fragile natural environment is rapidly adding pressure on scarce land and water resources. This unsustainable balance between production limitations and demand calls for a meaningful change in water efficiency in the region.
Solution
The Groasis Waterboxx (GW) is an integrated planting technology that allows fruits, trees and shrubs to grow in degraded farm and rangelands. The GW surrounds the bases of a plant to collect water necessary for crop survival. This innovative and inexpensive technology revitalizes degraded ecosystems, while simultaneously providing valuable nutrient sources of fruits and feed to both humans and animals.
How Does It Works?
The GW is a 20-liter box that is placed around a young seedling at transplanting. The box builds up a water column under the plant by collecting dew and rainwater, and distributes it over a long period of time to avoid evaporation. In practice, the transplanted seedling will receive just enough water from the GW to survive while it searches for water deep in the soil to develop a strong taproot. The taproot developed in this way will make the whole plant resilient to prolonged drought periods. The GW requires less inputs and management when compared to other water-saving technologies such as drip irrigation—and farmers may see a 95% money saving per hectare over a period of ten years.
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