IIT Kanpur comes with yet another bang on innovation, referred to as 'Bhu Parikshak'. This new portable device will be used to detect soil health in just 90 seconds via a mobile application with just five grams of soil sample.
A statement issued by IIT Kanpur stated, "This first-of-its-kind invention is based on near Infrared spectroscopy technology that provides real-time soil analysis reports on smartphones with an embedded mobile application and will be available on Google Play Store".
Testing Soil Health Parameters
An Agri-Tech company, known as AgroNxt Services Private Limited will use the technology. The device will require five grams of dry soil for detecting micronutrients present in the ground. It is a cylindrical shaped 5 cm long tube with built-in Bluetooth. Once the soil is poured into that tube, it will automatically connect itself with mobile and will analyse the soil for the next 90 seconds. After the analysis, the results appear on the screen as a soil health report, which is accessible on the 'Bhu Parikshak' cloud service with a unique ID. The information also comes with a recommended dose of fertilisers.
The device can detect six important soil parameters, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic carbon. It also recommends the required dose of fertilisers for the field and crops, reported The Times of India
The IIT-Kanpur said that the soil testing device would assist individual farmers in obtaining soil health parameters of agricultural fields with recommended doses of fertilisers. The device can test up to one lakh soil test samples, which is the highest testing capability of a device among its predecessors. The mobile application is made user-friendly through the user interface available in local languages. The statement said that even a Class 8 pass out could easily handle the device and the mobile application.
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