MacEwan University researchers launch $10 soil-testing system with VR training

Researchers at MacEwan University have developed Agrilo, a low-cost soil-testing system designed to bring precision agriculture to farmers who lack access to expensive laboratory diagnostics. By combining affordable hardware with a virtual reality training suite, the project aims to remove both the financial and technical barriers to optimized crop management.

The Agrilo system is a colorimetric tool that costs approximately $10 per test. It utilizes smartphone cameras to measure soil nutrients, allowing users to generate data without the need for high-end machinery. To ensure the tool is used correctly, the team created Agrilo VR, a training platform running on Meta Quest headsets. This simulation allows farmers and students to practice a specific seven-stage testing protocol—including reagent mixing and color development—in a virtual environment before applying the process in the field.

Bridging the Technical Gap

Precision agriculture has historically struggled with adoption due to high costs and technical complexity. While reducing the price of tools is essential, technical literacy and available advisory support are often the primary predictors of whether a farmer will actually implement these tools. According to a 2025 survey of small farmers in Kentucky, cost was the most-cited barrier to adopting precision agriculture tools, but the human element remains a critical hurdle.

Agrilo addresses this by treating the technology and the user as a single unit. The project is an international collaboration between MacEwan University and Dr. Abel Méndez Porras's research group at Tecnológico de Costa Rica's San Carlos campus. By pairing a cheap diagnostic tool with a scalable, standardized training method, the researchers aim to build the human capacity required to translate raw data into informed agricultural decisions.

Global Implications

This approach allows farmers to optimize fertilizer use, which improves crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of chemical runoff. Because the training is delivered via VR, it can be scaled across different geographic regions without requiring a constant presence of expert consultants on the ground.

To test the system's versatility, it is currently being evaluated in diverse global locations. These include Nairobi, Kenya; KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; San Carlos, Costa Rica; and Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. The results from these varied climates and soil types will determine how the system performs across different agricultural ecosystems.

Future Outlook

As the evaluation continues, the focus remains on whether the combination of low-cost hardware and VR training can lead to a measurable increase in adoption rates among small-scale farmers. The co-founders of the company developing Agrilo emphasize that when affordable technology is supported by well-designed training, field operators are better positioned to generate useful information and make data-driven decisions for their land.