Kanpur, December 13, 2013 : .The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur has created a mobile soil test device that detects soil health within 90 seconds using an embedded mobile app. Individual farmers can use the technology called BhuParikshak, or Portable Soil Testing Device to determine soil health and recommend fertilisers.
This invention, which is the first of its kind, uses Near Infrared Spectroscopy technology to provide real-time soil analysis reports on smart phones using an embedded mobile app called BhuParikshak.
It can be downloaded on Google Play Store.
It can measure six soil parameters: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as clay content, cation exchange potential, and organic carbon.The device also suggests the appropriate fertilizers to be applied for both the crop and the field.
“Farmers take care of us.They also face many hardships.They must wait days to get their soil tested.This will no longer be an issue.I’m delighted that the IIT Kanpur team has developed such an innovative device which will allow individual farmers to assess the soil health in just a few minutes,” Professor Abhay Karandikar (Director, IIT-K) stated in a statement.
The device can test upto 1 lakh soil test samples, which is the highest testing capability of a soil testing device among its predecessors.
The portable and wireless soil testing device requires a mere 5 grams of dry soil sample for detecting macronutrients present in the soil.
Once the soil is poured into the 5 cm long cylindrical shaped device, it connects itself with the mobile through Bluetooth, and starts analyzing the soil for 90 seconds.
After the analysis, the results appear on the screen in the form of a soil health report, which is accessible on BhuParikshak cloud service with unique ID.The report also comes with a recommended dose of fertilizers.
The mobile application is made user friendly through the user interface which is available in local languages, such that even a class eighth pass person can easily handle the device and themobile application, the institute said.
The rapid soil testing technology has been transferred to an agritech company named AgroNxt Services, which will aid in the manufacturing and marketing of the device to farmers.
rvt/ksk/
#creates #detects #soil #seconds #Kanpur #Google #Cloud #Wireless
.
