Earlier this month, the 57-year old Dutchman, Pieter Hoff, won Popular Science magazine's award for the best invention of 2010, beating 119 contenders.

His invention, the Groasis Waterboxx, is a plant incubator that does not need irrigating, which could help make fertile again the 70% of the world's arid and semi-arid lands whose productivity has been hit by deforestation and overfarming.

Drylands actually have enough water to sustain trees for decades, but it is several feet beneath the surface. Because rain and irrigation evaporate quickly, many young plants die before their roots can tap that reservoir. The Waterboxx, shaped more like a doughnut than a box, stores precipitation and captures condensation to help plants survive long enough to make it through that layer of dry soil.

In tests in the Sahara, 88 percent of Waterboxx-sheltered trees survived, versus 10 percent of trees with traditional cultivation. Pieter Hoff is now working on a biodegradable version that decomposes to feed the plant.

(Source: Pieter Hoff: Teach plants to grow in arid places [Guardian])