Agriculture reforms: A new device to test soil health that can transform farming

The Union government is preparing to upgrade the soil testing process by empowering farmers with a handheld digital tool that can deliver results in real time using satellite technology, a senior government official said.

With this device, farmers will be able to quickly assess soil properties such as texture, organic matter, pH, and nutrient levels in a matter of seconds with the help of a handheld device, allowing for precision-farming, said M.L. Jat, secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education.

With such information handy, farmers can apply the right amount of fertilizer, nutrients, and irrigation based on specific soil needs, thereby reducing input costs and improving crop yields, said Jat, who is also director general at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). 

In addition to this, unlike soil health cards that offer static and often technical reports, new National Soil Survey Laboratories will provide real-time and easy-to-understand soil data to farmers, who will receive personalized advice via mobile apps or handheld devices, Jat said.

These soil-related reforms are expected to overhaul agricultural practices in India, significantly improving yields for farmers. While traditional soil testing methods take several days and require substantial resources, conventional chemical analysis done at soil testing laboratories is expensive, labour-intensive, and time-consuming.

Agriculture contributes around 18% to India’s GDP and accounts for 42% of the country’s workforce. 

In the Union Budget for 2025-26, the agriculture and allied activities department received an allocation of ₹1.71 trillion, up from revised estimates of ₹1.40 trillion for FY25, a more than 20% increase signalling the Union government’s focus on improving agricultural practices in India.

Also read | India to revamp rice cultivation technique to save water, cut labour costs, reduce methane emissions

When agriculture reforms go digital

Powering the handheld devices will be the development of a large set of soil spectral libraries, which will allow for developing sensor-based soil fertility assessment, agriculture scientists said. This will allow farmers to treat different parts of their fields based on specific soil conditions.

Also, a national depository of standard soil spectral data collected from across the country will make soil data more accessible and interpretable even to farmers without technical backgrounds through user-friendly apps, Jat said.

The national depository currently “contains more than 40,000 spectra of different soil types collected from across India… Once it is fully developed, soil properties will be known in a fraction of a second,” said a senior scientist associated with ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning.

Also read | India wants Brazil’s farm mojo to grow more from less land

Another ICAR scientist said 5,000-10,000 samples would be added every year. 

“Once we have a sufficient number of soil samples covering the majority of variations in soils, relations between the soil properties and the spectra can be developed using various modelling algorithms including machine learning and deep learning techniques,” this scientist said.

These models can be used to predict properties of new soil samples, reducing dependency on physical laboratories for analysing soil properties. This will make it possible to generate soil health cards for every farmer, the scientist added.

As per government data, a total of 247.4 million soil health cards have been generated since February 2015 as part of a scheme to provide farmers with detailed information about the nutrient status of their soil.

The government has established 8,272 soil testing laboratories and released ₹1,706.18 crore to states and union territories to support the soil health card scheme. In 2024-25, about 9.2 million soil samples were sent for testing under the scheme, up from about 6.5 million samples in the year before.

Also read | India eyes bumper basmati crop as short-duration variety acreage set to rise 10%