Our award winning Nutrisens is to soil testing what glucometer is to blood testing Soilsens CEO

Bengaluru, Apr 1 (PTI) Sebastian T, a coffee grower in Wayanad, still follows the regimen that he has been following for 20 years now. Prune the trees once the harvest is over, check for diseases and treat them, water regularly during the flowering season -- and in summer -- and add fertilizer before the rains.




But, the yield in the last few years has seen a considerable decrease. A perplexed Sebastian took a drastic decision this season: cut the other trees around so that the coffee trees get more sunlight, which he thinks could be the reason for the low yield. Never once he suspected that it could be because of the soil.
But, Rajul Patkar, a Pune-based CEO and co-founder of a startup, Soilsens, which was incubated in the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay), said most often the culprit for lesser yield is poor soil health, which is compounded by the mindless application of fertilizers, especially chemical fertilizers.




The reason why farmers push testing of soil almost to the last is because of how complicated the whole process is, which involves sending samples to a lab, said Patkar.

“We have 14 crore farmers in India, but hardly 3,000 labs for soil testing,” added Patkar.




It meant that the farmers had to wait for at least 15 days to get results. This is a luxury to most of them, as they follow a strict cycle dictated by the weather where even a day missed would cost them a lot.



Probably one of the reasons why despite suggestions by many experts to carry out soil testing, so that farmers can understand better what their soil needs exactly, there are not many takers.



This is where Patkar’s Nutrisens comes in. A compact, easy-to-use soil testing device that helped Soilsens win the Best Startup Award at India’s first Nano Electronics Roadshow held recently in Bengaluru. Thirty-eight startups facilitated by Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and Indian Institutes of Technology in Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Delhi, had competed for the award at the event organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).



“Our award winning innovation Nutrisens is to soil testing what glucometer is to blood testing. Nutrisens offer on-the-spot diagnostics without relying on data models that may not always represent current soil conditions,” said Patkar, who started Soilsens to bring an end to unsustainable practices in agriculture with appropriate technology interventions.



Patkar said she started the research for Nutrisens way back in 2011, while pursuing her PhD in IIT (Bombay).



“I was thinking if glucometers could make measuring blood glucose levels easier, why not we do the same for soil too,” said Patkar to PTI.



The first prototype could be put together after almost a decade and the current Nutrisens is fine-tuned based on the feedback she received from users, said Patkar.



Although the device is compact, it could pinpoint what exactly the soil needs. For instance, Patkar with the help of K Ananth Krishnan, a consultant with IIT/ISM Dhanbad, had tested it among 70 farmers in Jharkhand, and the result pointed to the lack of nitrogen in soil due to the prevalence of coal mines.



The device is simple to use, said Patkar. “One can take it to the field. The sample preparation is also quite simple. Add a gram of soil to an agent solution of 3ml in a vial, shake it and leave it for about 30 minutes for the sediment to settle. Put a drop of the clear solution on the sensor and you are done,” said Patkar.

The device will analyse all six parameters -- PH, electrical conductivity, nitrate, phosphate, and potassium -- in less than five minutes, said Patkar.




“Nutrisens, a small hardware device that comes with paper-based sensor strips, dynamically adjusts to real-time soil variability, detecting even subtle nutrient shifts and deficiencies,” she added.

According to her, results, which are precise soil insights and not predictions, can be downloaded on a mobile phone. She also said the device can perform up to 25 soil tests in a day.


At the moment, the device is not being sold directly to farmers. It costs about Rs 45,000-50,000, and so, it is still a huge investment for a farmer, said Patkar.

“We are still in the process of creating an awareness among them about the device and what it could do,” said Patkar who started commercially piloting the device in 2022.




Instead, what Soilsens does is, create collaborations with agri-enterprises, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), and foundations, on a profit-sharing model, who in turn, help farmers with soil testing.

As for farmers, to get soil testing done via conventional method it costs them Rs 500, but with Nutrisens, they pay about Rs 300 for an instant test (approximately Rs 50 for every parameter), said Patkar.




“It is something that every farmer should have, and hopefully in future will have. This also offers a huge potential to rural women in case they want to become micro-entrepreneurs. They can make a one-time investment in the device, which has a lifespan of three to five years. In a year the device can perform 3,000 tests,” said Patkar.



Patkar said Soilsens is trying to create an ecosystem for the farmers by integrating soil, weather, and crop data for a holistic, adaptable farm management system, reducing reliance on industrial-scale interventions.



"Nutrisens is just one among our inventions. SoilSens has so far enabled up to 27 per cent reduction in water usage and 40 per cent decrease in fertilizer application," said Patkar.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)