A revolutionary way of planting rice for higher yields has been unveiled by the Saudi engineer — 70-year-old Ibrahim M. Alalim — who invented polymer which is used in agricultural water conservation.

“With the use of polymer, the seeds germinate and sprout fast, growing to about 13 cm in three days’ time of planting,” he said.

He added that it will also make the rice stalks grow faster than rice seedlings planted in an ordinary soil without polymer.

“For this reason, transplantation is much faster in the Kingdom’s agricultural areas like Hofuf and Jazan,” Alalim added.

He noted that popularizing rice production in the Kingdom’s agriculture areas with the use of polymer is one way of further developing Saudi Arabia’s downstream industry.

The polymer — called Polykem Hydrogel PagriSAP — looks like pieces of salt and absorbs large quantities of water. When mixed in soil, it will absorb 600 times its own weight of water. He also said that there would be more harvest yield because the polykem — which contains acrylic acid, acrylimide and potassium — makes the rice plants healthy.