Diego Martinez

Peruvian inventor whose solar-powered irrigation systems transformed Andean agriculture in the 1990s

Diego Martinez (1958-2018) revolutionized high-altitude farming in the Peruvian Andes with his SolAgro technology, developed between 1988-1995. Growing up in the Cusco region, he witnessed how extreme weather and lack of water access limited crops for Indigenous Quechua communities. His solar-powered irrigation systems, using mirrored panels to melt glacial runoff, increased crop yields by 300% in test regions.

By 2000, Martinez's innovations had been adopted by 15,000 Andean families through his Solar Harvest Network. His 1997 invention, the Condor Water Purifier, combined solar distillation with traditional clay pot technology, providing clean water to 200,000 people. His work was featured in the Nature journal's 1999 special issue on renewable agriculture.

Despite his technical background (B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería), Martinez prioritized community training, establishing the Solar Makers Academy in 1996 to teach Quechua farmers to build and maintain systems. His memoir "Fields of Light: A Solar Engineer's Journey in the Andes" (2001) details his philosophy of "innovation without displacement". The UN's Solar Agriculture Initiative (2003) directly credits his work as foundational.