Tech boost for soil quality scheme:

Tech boost for soil quality scheme:

Context:

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is looking to link the programme with a research project at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay that uses sophisticated imaging techniques and can picture the nutrient balance of a patch of land without necessarily collecting soil sample.

Technology used

Hyper spectral imaging

• means analysing extremely detailed images of an object  to the scale of nanometres and then reconstructing its constituent elements.
• Using custom-developed algorithms, satellite-images, or those taken from low flying planes or drones, can be used to calculate the proportion of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, the three most vital nutrients as well as other minerals in the soil and be used to gauge its health.

Hurdle

• Currently no Indian satellite has the capability to take nano-scale resolution pictures,

Way forward

• The DST should talks with the Ministry of Agriculture and State departments to evolve a programme and apply this technology for the government’s mission.
• More State officials come on board to discuss its application.
• State and centre should collaborate with ISRO to built such satellite.