"Smart soil" grows 138% bigger crops using 40% less water

This could be really important for areas subject to drought conditions; I hope it’s widely applicable, but I read something years back about using something similar to make desertified areas fertile again and then haven’t seen anything about it being implemented since, so I’m not sure if this is the same thing just more developed or if it’s a new thing that could be game changing.

Just what we need, more microplastics in our soil

I played with some similar hydrogels so a kid, but I never used them for gardening. Fun stuff, seems cool.