In September 2015, 193 world leaders signed a commitment to achieving 17 global sustainable development goals. The second goal aimed to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition by 2030 through the promotion of sustainable agriculture
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recognized MEAPLANT INNOVATION as a sustainable cultivation system, defining it : An innovation aligned with the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
By 2023, extreme weather events such as droughts, cyclones, and floods were estimated to be the primary cause of severe food insecurity for 77 million people across 18 countries, including 33 million children. Over the past 30 years, the number of climate-related disasters has tripled. Many of these extreme weather events have devastated agriculture and grazing lands, leading to displacement and pushing millions into acute hunger
The water drained after irrigation is continuously reused in a recirculation system. The MEAPLANT growing medium does not need to be washed regularly, as required in current soilless cultivation systems. No wastewater is released into the environment, and only the water necessary for plant growth is consumed. The result is an effective water saving compared to all other cultivation systems
The MEAPLANT substrate reduces water evaporation by mimicking the strategy of cacti, which use a combination of hydrophobic spines and trichomes to capture water from the environment and hydrophilic mucilage to store it. The transition from a hydrophobic layer to a hydrophilic one occurs in just a few seconds, compared to the minutes required for evaporation (Citation: Kim K, Kim H, Ho Park S, and Joon Lee S (2017) Hydraulic Strategy of Cactus Trichome for Absorption and Storage of Water under Arid Environment).
With the same speed, a drop of water suspended on the hydrophobic fibers of the MEAPLANT substrate is absorbed by the hydrophilic gel of the roots before it can evaporate
The substrate, composed of a network of hydrophobic fibers, captures moisture on its surface exposed to air, similar to the nets used in arid and drought-prone areas. In these nets, moisture in the form of water droplets becomes trapped in the mesh and is then collected at the base by gravity. The same phenomenon enables the MEAPLANT substrate to capture water droplets from atmospheric humidity, which, along with the water provided by the irrigation system, is utilized for plant growth
MEAPLANT INNOVATION is the first cultivation system so simple that anyone can use it. You place the seedling or seed in the growing channel and wait for the plant to grow.
“Innovation is worthless if it doesn’t improve people’s lives” – Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
MEAPLANT INNOVATION is currently in the prototype phase. We are working to move into the operational phase.
Many phenomena in Nature involve trapped drops of water: the formation of dew drops on a spider’s web, the capture of drops of water on the spines of cacti or the movement of droplets on plant fibres. These phenomena have been studied and explored for various technological applications: from microfluidics for medical and electronic equipment, to harvest nets of the water drops from fog in the desert areas. MEAPLANT’s innovation for the first time in history has applied these physical principles to make soilless cultivation simple, efficient and suitable for everyone.
Our cultivation substrate is made up of a mesh of threads made with materials for food use which are hydrophobic and chemically inert.
The drops of water and mineral salts, supplied by an irrigation system, remain suspended on the threads for the balance that it is established between the surface tension of the drops and their weight.
The videos below show how the drops supplied by an irrigation system are captured by a mesh of interwoven threads as happens in our growing substrate. When the drops increase in mass and become greater than the surface tension resistance force, they precipitate inside the tank.
Diagram of the equilibrium forces.
Simulation Acknowledgements: Simulation result courtesy of Flow Science, Inc., developer of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, FLOW-3D® (https://www.flow3d.com). Flow Science is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA – Inc. 683 Harkle Road.