Stfr Meter Case Study

Case Study: STFR meter

(Soil Test and Fertilizer Recommendation Kit)

This soil testing kit is basically a low cost, user friendly digital embedded system instrument which can quantitatively estimate available nutrients in soil such as organic carbon, nitrate, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, zinc and boron.

This soil testing kit helps farmers in testing 12 parameters of soil & recommends fertilizer dose for 100 crops within a short time and at a centre nearby, and thus helps them to achieve higher yields and keeps soil fertile.

Pusa STFR meter tests following 12 parameters of soil:

1. Available organic carbon (n)

2. Available phosphorous (p)

3. Available potassium (k)

4. Available zinc (zn)

5. Available sulphur (s)

6. Available boron (b)

7. Available iron (fe)

8. Available manganese (mn)

9. Electrical conductivity

10. pH

11. Lime Requirement Test for Acid Soil

12. Gypsum Requirement Test For Alkaline Soil

Structure and Functioning of the STFR meter

The available nutrient in a soil is extracted with a reagent and a colour is developed in the extract with another reagent. The colour intensity which is proportional to the amount of nutrient extracted is measured by this STFR meter. The instrument has five press buttons. UP and DOWN button is used to browse the instrument and ENTER button is used to select the nutrient to be measured. ESC button is used to go to the previous menu. RESET button is used to go to the opening menu. After estimating all the nutrients, fertilizer recommendation can be obtained for a selected crop and the selected yield target from the FERTILIZER DOSE item of the menu.

The device includes a sample holding unit, an input receiving unit, soil parameter testing unit, and a data processing unit. The sample holding receives one or more soil sample from a user. Thereafter the user selects a crop through the input receiving unit. The soil parameter-testing unit then determines one or...