Times News Network Kanpur: In the foundation for innovation and research in science and technology (first-IITK), IIT-Kanpur has developed portable land testing devices that can detect soil health in just 90 seconds through the embedded cellular application.
This device will help farmers to get soil health parameters with suggested fertilizer doses.
Technology titled Portable Land Testing Device – ‘BHU Parikshak’ has been transferred to the Agritech company named Agronxt Services Private Limited.
The discovery was developed by the inventor team in IIT-K, which consisted of Prof.
Jayant Kumar Singh from the Chemical Department of Engineering, Pallav Prince, Ashar Ahmad, Yashasvi Khemani and Mohd Aamir Khan.
IIT-K claims that the discovery of the first novel is based on the first infrared spectroscopy technology that provides real-time land analysis reports on smart phones with an embedded cellular application called Bhu Parikshak available on the Google Play Store.
The device can detect six important soil parameters, namely -nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, clay content and cation exchange capacity.
It also recommends fertilizer doses needed for fields and plants.
The mobile application has been made user friendly through the user interface available in local languages.
The device can test up to one lakh land test sample, the highest testing capabilities of a device.
This technology has been transferred to agronxt with the aim of making devices through mass production to benefit farmers.
The formal technology license agreement was signed between IIT-K and Agronxt services in front of the IIT-K Prof.
Abhay Karandikar director and agronxt service director Rajat Vardhan on December 11.
Prof.
Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Prof.
Ar Harish and Ravi Pandey from the Institute were also present on that occasion.
Professor Karandikar said, “I am happy with the IIT-K team to develop such new devices that will help individual farmers in assessing their land health almost non-existent.
This is another step towards achieving the objectives of the technology independence that will be provided by the IIT-K.” Portable and wireless land testing devices only need 5G dry soil samples to detect macronutrients.
After the land is poured into a 5 cm long cylindrical device, it connects itself to a cellphone via Bluetooth, and starts analyzing the land for 90 seconds and the results appear on the screen in the form of soil health reports, which can be accessed in Bhu Parikshak Cloud Service with a unique ID.