A team of researchers at IIT-Kanpur has developed a portable soil testing device that can detect soil health in less than 90 seconds when combined with an embedded mobile application. The technology has been licensed to AgroNxt Services private limited, an agritech company.
Key Highlight:
- A team of researchers at IIT-Kanpur has developed a portable soil testing device that can detect soil health in less than 90 seconds.
- The technology has been licensed to AgroNxt Services private limited, an agritech company.
- The device can detect six critical soil parameters: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, clay content, and capacity for cation exchange.
- It provides real-time soil analysis reports via a mobile application called Bhu Parikshak.
IIT-Kanpur has developed a portable soil testing device that can detect soil health in 90 seconds via an embedded mobile application as part of a Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology (FIRST-IITK) project. The device will assist farmers in determining soil health parameters in conjunction with recommended fertilizer doses. The Portable Soil Testing Device ‘Bhu Parikshak’ technology has been licensed to an agritech firm called AgroNxt Services private limited.
The invention was developed by a team of IIT-K researchers led by Prof Jayant Kumar Singh of the department of chemical engineering, Pallav Prince, Ashar Ahmad, Yashasvi Khemani, and Mohd Aamir Khan. According to IT-K, the first-of-its-kind novel invention is based on Near Infrared Spectroscopy technology. It provides real-time soil analysis reports via a mobile application called Bhu Parikshak, available on the Google Play Store.
The device can detect six critical soil parameters: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, clay content, and capacity for cation exchange. Additionally, it recommends the appropriate amount of fertilizer for the field and crops. The mobile application has been more user-friendly by including a user interface in local languages. The device can test up to one lakh soil samples, the highest capacity of any device.
The technology has been transferred to Agronxt to mass produce the device for the benefit of farmers. The technology licensing agreement between IT-K and AgroNxt Services was formally signed on December 11 in IT-K director Prof Abhay Karandikar and AgroNxt Services director Rajat Vardhan. Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Prof A R Harish, and Ravi Pandey were also in attendance.
Prof. Karandikar stated, “I am delighted for the IIT-K team for developing such an innovative device that will enable individual farmers to assess the health of their soil quickly. This is another step toward IIT-goal K’s of technological self-sufficiency.”
The portable and wireless soil testing device requires only 5g of dry soil for macronutrient detection. Once the soil is poured into the 5 cm long cylindrical device, it connects to the mobile via Bluetooth and analyses it for 90 seconds. The results appear on the screen in the form of a soil health report accessible via the Bhu Parikshak cloud service using a unique ID.
IIT Kanpur developed a portable testing device
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 13, 2021
'Bhu Parikshak' that can detect the soil health in just 90 seconds through a mobile application
Device is developed by team of Prof Jayant K Singh. We'd transferred the technology to a start-up: Institute Director Abhay Karandikar pic.twitter.com/eFxgbPod3E
