The Spices Board, the Rubber Board and the Digital University of Kerala shared an MoU to use modern techniques to generate spatial models of soil nutrients in the cardamom tracts and to develop an android-based mobile application for cardamom growers to enable site-specific, need based fertiliser recommendation.
D Sathiyan, secretary, Spices Board, said, “Through this initiative, farmers will be able to access location-specific soil nutrient status and fertiliser recommendation online, once the geographical location of the holding is identified with GPS. “Changes in the fertility status over a period of time can also be assessed with the help of geo-referenced soil fertility maps.”