A soil-testing lab in a farmer's hand.

A farmer deciding how much fertiliser to use first needs to know what the soil already contains. Conventional testing can mean collecting a sample, sending it to a distant laboratory and waiting days or weeks for a report.

During her doctoral work at IIT Bombay, Dr Rajul Patkar began asking a deceptively simple question: if blood can be tested through a small portable device, why cannot soil be tested closer to the farmer?

The result is NutriSens, developed by Proximal SoilSens Technologies. The compact system uses paper-based sensor strips and a small soil sample to measure six important parameters, including pH, electrical conductivity, nitrate, phosphate and potassium.

Results are delivered in minutes through a mobile application, together with a soil-health report and recommendations. The field-ready approach reduces the need to transport every sample to a conventional laboratory.

NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Repository reports that NutriSens has reached an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 farmers across several states. The model also trains rural women as soil-health entrepreneurs who can travel between farms, perform tests and help interpret results.

That combination is what makes the innovation stand out. It does not merely shrink a laboratory process. It turns soil intelligence into a service that can travel—to the field, to the village and to the exact decision where it matters.