An innovative South African teenager caught worldwide attention because of his creation of a material from orange peels that would enable the drying soils to retain water. This idea came as a result of an increasing world challenge. There is a shortage of rainfall on many farms across the world, together with high temperatures and poor water retention in soils.
Kiara Nirghin, at the age of 16, investigated the possibility of turning orange peels into a hydrogel material able to retain water in soils. The idea might sound easy, but scientists state that the investigation underlying it has a connection with a genuine and rapidly evolving scientific area of agricultural materials science.
