US Patent Issued to University of Delaware on Aug. 5 for "Increasing water retention in soil to mitigate drought" (Delaware Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,378,166, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to University of Delaware (Newark, Del.).

"Increasing water retention in soil to mitigate drought" was invented by Harsh Bais (Newark, Del.) and Yan Jin (Newark, Del.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention provides a soil composition having improved water retention. The composition comprises soil particles and Bacillus subtilis UD1Q22. For example, the composition may comprise soil particles having a particle size no greater than 2 mm and at least 50% of the soil particles have a particle size in the range of 0.05-2 mm. A method for improving water retention of a soil composition is al...