Page 42 - Digital India Awards 2022 - Compendium

Digital Initiatives in Collaboration with Startups

Smart Nutrient Management of the Soil

(Telangana)

Project Team
Initiative Lead:
Jayesh Ranjan
Principal Secretary to Government, Information Technology Electronics & Communication
Members:
M Raghunandan Rao Rama Devi Lanka Sudheer Kumar Jindham Sandeep Kondaji
APC & Secretary to Govt. OSD & Director, Emerging Technology Sr. Consultant CEO
Agriculture Information Technology Electronics & Information Technology Krishitantra
Cooperation Department Communication Electronics & Communication

The Government of Telangana along with Krishitantra
has built a completely automated portable soil testing
solution named Krishi RASTAA- Rapid Automated Soil
Testing with Agronomy Advisory. Operators/Technicians
collect soil samples, conduct analysis using the device
and relevant chemicals required, gene and rate instant
reports and recommendations are available on the cloud
which can be accessed with a unique ID and password
on the mobile app and also delivered to the farmers via
SMS. The results and recommendations are available in 3
languages- Telugu, English, and Hindi.

Soil quality alone contributes to about 60% of the
productivity of the crop. In India, the available soil lab to
farmer ratio is 1: 1.42 lakh, considering approximately 3887
govt. soil testing labs. The reasons attributed to farmers’
reluctance to soil testing are lack of accessibility to soil
testing labs in their vicinity, the average time is taken for

soil testing which ranges from a minimum of 1 week to a few months, cost, lack of interpretation or fertilizer
recommendation accompanying the soil test reports.

Krishitantra has set up a soil testing centre in the infrastructure provided by the Telangana Government at the
Raithu Vedika. Maheshwaram Mandal, Rangareddy District of Telangana. They enabled the Raithu Vedika with
rapid and automated soil testing equipment, “KRISHI RASTAA” along with required reagents and accessories for
conducting the test. Krishitantra provided the required staff to operate the device.

The following activities were carried out in the respective villages of Maheshwaram, Kadthal, Kandukur, and
Amangal mandals of the Rangareddy district:

Collected soil samples as per prescribed guidelines of ICAR and as mentioned in the project implementation
plan
Processed the soil sample and conducted an analysis using KRISHI RASTAA

Generated soil test reports with fertilizer recommendations and shared the report to the farmer