Fixing India's soil crisis: Farmer awareness, tech can arrest degradation

A balanced soil-nutrient profile is crucial for improving crop and soil productivity. Yet, deterioration in soil health remains a significant concern in India. The current fertiliser-subsidy system, which heavily emphasises urea, has resulted in an imbalance in the soil-nutrient profile, with excessive nitrogen usage and inadequate phosphorus and potassium supplementation.  The Fertiliser Statistics Report notes the NPK-use ratio was 7.7:3.1:1 in 2021-22, which is highly skewed towards nitrogen and is far from the ideal ratio of 4:2:1. Excessive nitrogen application at the cost of micronutrients and manure not only reduces soil productivity over time but also contributes to nutrient runoffs and groundwater contamination. In this context, the soil health card (SHC) scheme, which recently completed its 10th anniversary, has done well to provide personalised recommendations to farmers about their soil health and guide them in selecting appropriate crops and fertilisers. It was introduced in part to address land degradation by promoting a balanced use of fertilisers based on soil testing. 

So far, over 247 million SHCs have been distributed across the country and 8,272 soil-testing labs (STL) have been established. Of these, 665 labs, designated as village-level soil-testing labs (VSTL), have been established in 17 states. The decentralisation of laboratories at village level is expected to facilitate farmers to find an STL in close geographical proximity, and get timely and accurate soil-analysis results. These include those set up by entrepreneurs and self-help groups.  Additionally, 1,020 schools are implementing the school soil-health programme, with 1,000 STLs set up and more than 100,000 students enrolled. Further, the use of geospatial technologies for soil mapping and the use of the SHC mobile application to link the location of the soil samples with their test results must also be welcomed. In fact, the Soil and Land Use Survey of India has completed soil mapping in around 29 million hectares, covering 40 aspirational districts. Aligning these initiatives with the latest technological advancements will greatly benefit farmers, and also help achieve precision in soil survey and land-use planning.

  STLs require infrastructure, skilled workers to handle chemicals, and capital expenditure. Several reports, however, show laboratories are often understaffed and struggle with inadequate infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies in implementing the scheme. Moreover, several farmers face issues in receiving timely reports, while many fail to implement the SHC recommendations. In this regard, the use of portable artificial intelligence-enabled soil testing kits can address some of these problems because they can be carried to any location and be operated by personnel with minimal training. For instance, the “KRISHI-RASTAA Soil Testing System” is an Internet of Things-based automated soil testing and agronomy advisory platform that can seamlessly conduct 12 key soil parameter tests in just 30 minutes. It was jointly developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Institute of Rice Research, and agritech startup KrishiTantra. Agritech startups possess immense potential in leveraging artificial intelligence for rapid soil testing by bringing innovative, scaleable, and cost-effective solutions to farmers. There is also a need for the SHC scheme to increasingly focus on farmer awareness, work on ensuring the implementation of its recommendations by farmers, and provide real time agronomic advisory services.