Lluvia Sólida: An economic lifeline for farmers in drier, unpredictable climate conditions
- Mexico
- 7 min read
- Nov 11, 2020
- By Gareth Gardiner Jones
©Lluvia Sólida
Reducing the need for watering by up to 90%, this Mexican startup’s polymer-based water retention technology is a potential game-changer for farming worldwide
Plants absorb only 10–15% of irrigation water while the remainder drains away or evaporates. This is a critical loss in drought-stricken regions, which Mexican startup Lluvia Sólida, or Solid Rain in English, aims to stem with its biodegradable, non-toxic, potassium-based polymer that has the capacity to hold water up to 400 times its weight for 40 days.
The technology was created by chemical engineer Sergio Rico Velasco in the late 1990s at Mexico's National University Polytechnic, where he tested potassium-based polymer's ability to retain water in plants and to capture and stor...
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