Agrioceano

Freshwater is incredibly rare and only 3% of the world’s water is fresh, and two-thirds of that is frozen and unavailable. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. Droughts will become more common in some places, floods in others. Glaciers and snow packs will disappear in some areas, affecting the freshwater supplies. Agriculture consumes more water than any other source and wastes much of that through inefficiencies. These will cause to have less water available for agriculture.
Furthermore, inefficient irrigation and poor drainage lead to waterlogging, which raises the water table, bringing salts in the subsoil nearer the surface. The more that irrigation is used to increase food production, the more saline soils become. Salinity constitutes a real threat to the world achieving the 70% increase in food production. Besides, as sea levels rise, low-lying coastal areas are increasingly being inundated with saltwater, gradually contaminating the soil.
One solution could be the development of genetically engineered and salt-tolerant crops. Our startup is to use Mangrove trees as the rootstocks for some compatible fruit trees. We have grafted 27 different types of local trees as scions to the rootstocks of mangrove trees in order to create some new salt-tolerant varieties. For this experiment, we used mangrove forest trees around Bushehr that grow on the seashore. Despite the weak soil of the region and the high salinity of the Persian Gulf water, three of the 27 cuttings showed better compatibility and was somehow successful. You can find the pictures of some of these cuttings in the poster we prepared for this competition.
The grey mangrove can grow in water conditions that are too saline. The species can tolerate high salinity by excreting salts through its leaves. It can tolerate extreme weather conditions, high winds, and various pests and diseases. It is a pioneer in muddy soil conditions with a pH value of 6.5 to 8.0, but is intolerant of shade. It is distributed along Africa's east coast, south-west, south and south-east Asia, Australia, coasts of Persian gulf, red sea and northern parts of New Zealand.
To develop the startup, first of all, we must find answers to two important issues. First, where is the best region for developing this startup and second, is about finding more suitable scions for grafting which can provide more fruit.
During the high tide, the mangrove tree may sink under the sea and continue to live. But the scions dry up in contact with the salt water. So, the height of mangrove trees, sea level and how high can waves get at sea is very important. Some application like DroneDeploy, Pix4D allows us to fly the drone to make interactive maps and models. Then, process the imagery with the app to generate high resolution maps and 3D models. These maps help us to find the best place and altitude. Also by extracting ocean wave and wind information from SAR data sets, we can be sure that the buds will not be harmed. In addition, the quality of the soil should be tested to know if it has the necessary minerals for the bods. Zeinab is expert in working with drones, GIS and providing 3d maps. She is also an expert in data-science and working with big data and has a good knowledge at collecting, analyzing, and interpreting large datasets, developing new forecasting models, and performing data management tasks. She has expert knowledge in numerous programming languages including HTML5, Java, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, MySQL.
The agricultural lands do not have to be necessarily on the coastline. They can be located far from the sea. But the point that should be considered is that the sea water is constantly moving in it so that it does not become saltier. Since after planting mangrove trees and irrigation with sea water, the lands become more saline, it is better to choose lands that are currently salty and uncultivable.
In a trial and error process, Gelavizh and Somayeh will try to find which rootstocks are more suitable for which scions. The final goal is to reach the best grafted trees that are more vigorous and resilient under controlled laboratory conditions. They also work on the quality of soil and apply some operations, practices, and treatments to protect soil and enhance its performance.
Building large gardens that are irrigated with seawater can solve many of the problems of salinity and lack of fresh water. But since this work requires a lot of capital and also a lot of environmental permits, it is possible only by governments and big investors, and in the first step, our customers cannot be ordinary people and farmers with small lands. As soon as we register our invention, we can enter into negotiations with governments and large investment companies. This plant patent can help us secure the profits by preventing competitors from using the plant.

Gelavizh Barzegar
She holds PhD in environmental health engineering. Since 2013, She has worked in the field of monitoring and removing environmental pollution and wastewater treatment with advanced oxidation methods. She has also conducted studies in the field of biological methods of removing pollution from contaminated soils of oil and industrial areas using indigenous soil bacteria of those areas.
In addition, she has participated in two important researches on the effects of air pollution in causing various diseases. Since 2017, she has been focusing on new methods of industrial and resistant wastewater treatment. The subject of her PhD thesis was in the field of MFC and biological treatment of wastewater by exoelectrogen bacteria. In the field of environmental pollution, she has eighteen articles in prestigious ISI journals with 929 citations and thirteen h-index.

Seyedeh Somayeh Fazeli Kia
She holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering majoring in environment and a master's degree in soil science, Fertility Chemistry, and Ph.D. in soil science, Biology. Her PhD thesis was about improvement and resistance of calcareous soils sensitive to erosion with the help of native microbial isolates using the MICP method in southern Iran.
One of the most important research works of her is the registration of 20 separate genes of the strain in the field of soil improvement and stabilization. The most important function of these strains is to coexist with the plant during soil stabilization and to help the plant perform better in eroded soil.
In another research, she studied the loss of elements due to erosion, the improvement of eroded soil and the strengthening of calcareous soil with the help of biology.

Zeinab Khodaveisi
Zeinab holds a bachelor in architecture and urbanism. She is expert in working with drones, GIS and providing 3d maps. She is also an expert in data-science and working with big data and has a good knowledge at collecting, analyzing, and interpreting large datasets, developing new forecasting models, and performing data management tasks. She has expert knowledge in numerous programming languages including HTML5, Java, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, MySQL.
In 2019, her startup idea was accepted by IAPMEI in Portugal. It was an app that lets the users record their feelings on a virtual urban maps. By browsing this map, tourists can get familiar with emotional map of the citizens and experience a deep sense of local culture. By categorizing these different memories, users can experience different layers of social life on cities.