Javier Eraso
Alberto Martínez de Marañon
Iñigo Lasheras
Universidad de Navarra
Isabel Rodriguez Tejedo
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The Hydroball analyses features of the agricultural land, such as the characteristics and composition of the field, and the amount of water available for plants in the field, which greatly helps to avoid water wasting or ground degradation.
This new device will be very useful to help several SDGs. First of all, the efficient use of water will allow us to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems (SDG 15). Secondly, as we will be able just to use the necessary water for agriculture, no water will be wasted, and that will let us ensure universal access to safe and affordable drinking water (SDG 6). Moreover, the high accessibility of the product will allow many farmers to use it and therefore to seek sustainable solutions to end hunger (SDG 2).
As Fernando Sarriá, the CEO, told us, “Hydroball helps to maximize the efficiency of the hydric resources by analyzing features of the agricultural land". The excess of irrigation generates not only a waste of resources but also important environmental problems. All the fields are fertilized with chemical products, so if we irrigate them with too much water, all those components are taken away from the field, by making them end up in aquifers. This leads to phenomenon, such as the present in Mar Menor or the Levante, which face a degradation of the aerobic live.
This creates three issues: an environmental problem, a problem of resources management and a productivity problem, particularly worrisome for farmers. Each plantation needs a specific amount of water for efficient and effective performance, and an excess of water means worse performance and it wastes this precious resource. However, with the Hydroball, we can check for the structure of the ground, the salinity of the water (which is the factor affecting the water called “osmosis” (the salt traps the water), and many more relevant facts which are essential for efficient crops. The Hydroball captures all these features and sends the data to be processed easily at an app.
The Hydroball can help reduce hunger because it is both very effective and very affordable, so even the humblest farmers can have access to it. Moreover, an efficient analysis of the land would help us to use resources such as water efficiently and reduce waste. Therefore, it will also have a great impact on the use of water and on the environment.
As everything in life, developing a new idea is a matter of opportunity. Fernando clearly shows this by saying, “You do not wake up one day and say, today is going to be different. I’m going to create a humidity sensor.” This clearly shows that the idea is not created suddenly one day. It is based on a constant study of the market watching which are the most important and interesting market weaknesses to exploit them. He clearly reflects this point stating, “At the end life is based on opportunities and you must be aware and follow your own intuition and try to take advantage of every opportunity, and that’s what we have done inside our company.”
Since the year 2014, Fernando mentors a team of 12 to 16 year-olds that takes part in a science and innovation international competition. Each season, the team faces a new challenge. They have to identify a problem and then design an innovative technological solution for it. In 2018, the challenge was to identify a problem in the water cycle. They found out that more than 70% of the world's fresh water is used in agriculture: much of that water is wasted due to excessive irrigation, and that has very negative environmental consequences. To solve that problem, they designed the first prototype of the Hydroball. It was presented in California, in the Global Innovation Award, and the team won the 1st prize. It was their goal to make this project into the real world. Fernando decided to bet on its development. Some of the kids continued working on the engineering process of the Hydroball after the competition, with a team of professional engineers assembled by Fernando.
Despite the Hydroball has yet to be launched to the market, its expectations are very optimistic. This device presents all the features that the competence does not have, and linked to the fact that its production costs are not that high, the price will be more affordable than other similar products and that would help it to be quickly commercialized.
As it becomes more widespread, millions of units will be produced in a few years, and therefore, its impact will be considerably high. First, regarding the environmental aspect, we can focus on the issue of the waste of water in fields. Lots of water is wasted in fields leading to an overirrigation that does not only suppose the waste of this important resource, but also damages on the fields downstream because of the underground currents that leads to a degradation such as the present in Mar Menor or Levante, in Spain. In economic terms, this device is produced applying economy of scale criteria, allowing to develop this ambitious technology in hundreds of thousands of units and at a very reasonable price. This could mean a huge help to the humble farmer from all around the world that could afford to pay for this technology. Furthermore, this device can be used in any house garden, or golf and soccer fields, to check easily the features of the land.
The innovation is the core of the business venture, and the CEO expects it to have large returns. The project is extremely ambitious as Fernando expressed, "I’m fighting for the project to be evaluated in 1,000 million euros. There are people who call me crazy, even the investors do. But I recognize the errors made by the competence and I strongly think that this project overcame every lack of features. The idea is to develop and expand the company not only through Navarra but also all over the world."
It is obvious that the benefits expected from the launch of this new device are very large. This will firstly lead to big expected profits as he mentioned before, of millions of euros. Secondly, it is expected an increase of employees or workers as the selling of the device increase. Moreover, it is expected an exportation of the product all around the world, by introducing it to all regional and international markets. This means that the product will not just be sold in Navarra.
The project aims to have a big impact on society. The main goal of the project is not just to be bought by big companies, but also to be accessible by small farmers. The idea is to sell it at an affordable price so as to sell it widely to any kind of people. This will allow the device to be internationally commercialized, and therefore, impact on many kinds of crops. This will therefore allow humble farmers to be able to have efficient crops by knowing more about some features of their lands. In doing so, Hydroball can even help to reduce hunger.
On the other hand, this will encourage an efficient and effective use of water and will help avoid many environmental damages. These damages are mainly caused by the excess of water, which removes essential nutrients from the ground. This effect is called “Percolation”, which makes this water and nutrients end up downstream in aquifers. So, related to this, if the invention is globalized it could have a huge beneficial impact.
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Fernando Sarriá Pueyo, Fernando Sarriá Pueyo
