Pune Inc: Maharashtra scientist’s Soilometer helps farmers check their soil health

The money will be used for a ‘Laboratory at Farm’ initiative by which farmers can check the soil microbial health and manage the farm accordingly and access the quality of bio-products that they are buying. “We are also planning to deliver handy kits to the farmer that will tell them what kind of pathogens are present in the soil so that they can, accordingly, treat their soil,” says Gadge.

Last week, the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing in Jaipur granted Gadge’s company, Biome Technologies, funding of Rs 18 lakh. (File Photo)

Till now, the kit, priced at Rs 310, has been deployed by 7,000 users across India, which includes the bio-fertiliser industry that wants to demonstrate the quality of soil to the farmers. Biome is also in talks with government authorities for using Soilometer as a standard kit for the natural and organic farming that the country is trying to promote. “Earlier farmers used one or two bags of fertilisers and got good yields. Now, they are using a number of bags but failing to get a good harvest and their losses continue. This has been a cause of farmer suicides or debt as farmers are driven to moneylenders,” he says.

Gadge traces the decline in the country’s soil health to companies that have been selling farmers products that contain fungicide-like molecules or antibiotics, among others, that disturb the nature of the soil and the biodiversity. “The biodiversity of the microorganisms present in the soil is the life of the soil as it helps plants to take in the nutrients in a proper way, protects them from climate change and environmental changes and, most importantly, protects them from pathogens and pests,” says Gadge.

Till now, the kit has been deployed by 7,000 users across India

Before Soilometer, the scientist-cum-entrepreneur had created a growth-promoting bio-stimulant in a laboratory on his terrace, and formulations for roots developments, proper flowering and branching and nitrogen fixation, among others, for almost 200 agrochemical-based industries. “I began to conduct skill training for farmer groups and industry because there was a high degree of agrochemical illiteracy among farmers,” he says.

Gadge adds that soil health is worsening in the country and farmers have no alternative but to go for soil rejuvenation. This is a growing market that is attracting several companies. “But, farmers should be able to analyse the soil microbial health before deciding which biological products in the market are suitable for them,” he says.