By NuaSense, based in Nairobi
Each sensor reads soil moisture and soil temperature in the root zone about every 10 minutes. A solar powered node box sends the readings to your NuaSense weather station, and from there to your phone.
What it measures
A soil sensor answers one question well: how wet and how warm the soil is where the roots are, today and over the past weeks. It does not test fertility, and it does not need to.
Relative moisture in the root zone, reported as a percentage of the sensor's own scale. You watch it rise after irrigation or rain and fall as the crop draws water, and you irrigate on that trend instead of the calendar.
Soil moisture sensorEvery sensor also reads soil temperature at its depth. Germination and root growth follow the temperature of the soil, not the air above it, so the reading at seed depth is the one that counts at planting.
Soil temperature sensorThe EC version adds electrical conductivity, which rises with the salts dissolved in the soil water, from fertiliser and from irrigation water. Read over weeks, it shows salt building up under drip or fertigation.
Soil EC sensorNitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and pH. For fertiliser and lime decisions you need a lab test of your soil, and no in-field sensor replaces it (why a pH meter and the lab disagree). The NuaSense dashboard does show soil texture, pH and water holding capacity for your location, but those are modelled map values from iSDA Africa and SoilGrids of around 2016: useful background, not a test of your field.
Prices
These are the only prices we publish, in Kenya shillings and excluding taxes. The sensors need a NuaSense weather station to come online, so a farm starts with one station and adds a sensor for each block it wants to watch.
| What you buy | What it reads | Price, excl. taxes |
|---|---|---|
| Soil sensor, one depth | Soil moisture and soil temperature | KES 7,000 |
| Soil sensor, two depths | Two moisture and two temperature channels, a shallow and a deeper reading | KES 9,000 |
| Soil sensor with EC | Adds electrical conductivity, the salt load of the soil water | KES 10,000 |
| NuaSense weather station Required | Rain, wind, air temperature, humidity, air pressure and sunlight. It also brings the soil sensors online. | KES 30,000 |
Want more than two depths at one spot? The node box takes more sensors; ask us for that price.
Mobile data
The station connects over a Safaricom SIM. We pass the data fee on at cost, typically about one US dollar per station per month. On Wi-Fi there is no data fee.
Dashboard
Included at no charge, with five direct downloads a day, on the NuaSense dashboard.
Alerts
SMS and WhatsApp alerts cost 0.03 US dollars per message. Switch them on or off, or change how often they come, at any time.
API
Only if you want the readings inside your own system: one US dollar per 1,000 calls. Using the dashboard costs nothing.
How it works
Two pieces of hardware do the work, and no cable runs between the field and the station.
Each sensor sits on its own cable at the depth you choose for the crop. One node box carries one sensor or several, so a single spot can be read at two or more depths.
The box charges from the small solar panel on its lid, holds a battery and can also be charged over USB-C. It needs no mains power and no battery changes.
About every 10 minutes the box sends its readings by LoRaWAN radio to your NuaSense weather station, which measures the weather at the same time. There is no other receiver to buy.
The solar powered station carries soil and weather readings to the internet on its own, over a Safaricom SIM card or over Wi-Fi where you have it.
You read soil and weather side by side on the dashboard, get SMS or WhatsApp alerts when you want them, and can pull the readings into your own software through the API. See how the whole system fits together.
Reading the numbers
The moisture figure is a percentage of the sensor's own scale, not the volume of water in the soil. Readings between 60 and 85 are normal on that scale. The scale follows wetting and drying faithfully. What it cannot tell you on the first day is which number means full for your soil (percent of scale or volumetric water content).
That number is your field capacity, and you find it once, on your own field. Soak the soil around the sensor, let it drain, and note the reading when it stops falling quickly. From then on you irrigate when the reading has dropped a set distance below that mark, and you stop when it comes back. The full method is in how to calibrate a soil moisture sensor on your own field, and the three numbers you need to read a moisture reading puts field capacity, wilting point and depletion side by side.
Depth matters as much as the number. The shallow sensor shows when the crop has started drawing water and it is time to irrigate. The deeper sensor shows whether the water reached the bottom of the root zone, or whether you are pushing it past the roots. There is no single correct depth, because it follows the crop and how deep its roots go, so we never print one as a specification (how deep to bury a soil probe, and why two depths beat one). Each crop also wants its own range, which you can read off the probe crop by crop.
Soil temperature comes from the same spot. It tells you when the seedbed is ready and what mulch does to the root zone, and in most of Kenya it is moisture rather than cold that holds germination back (soil temperature and germination).
Compare
Search for a soil sensor in Kenya and you find KES 150 circuit boards next to KES 85,000 testers. They answer different questions, and the right one depends on the decision you need to make.
| Tool | What it tells you | Typical price in Kenya | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby sensor module | A raw signal for your own electronics project, with no logging, power or connection | KES 150 to 900 | Learning and prototypes |
| Handheld soil meter | One spot at one moment. Some testers also show NPK figures; for fertiliser decisions a lab test is the reference | KES 1,200 to 7,000; professional and NPK testers KES 12,000 to 85,000 | Spot checks across a field |
| Lab soil test | Nutrients, pH and organic matter for one sample | KES 1,000 to 5,000 per sample | Fertiliser and lime plans, once a season |
| NuaSense soil sensor | Moisture and soil temperature in the root zone about every 10 minutes, EC on one version, with alerts | KES 7,000 to 10,000 per sensor plus the KES 30,000 station, excl. taxes | Irrigation decisions every week |
Third-party prices are typical figures from Kenyan shops and lab price lists in October 2026.
On an irrigated farm the lab test and the sensor do not compete. The lab test sets the fertiliser plan once a season; the sensor times the water every week.
In the field
Readings earn their money when they change what you do this week. These are the decisions farmers make with them, each explained in our Field Notes.
The shallow sensor shows the crop drawing the root zone down; the deeper one shows when the water you applied has arrived. Between the two lies your irrigation window, and it differs by crop: the soil moisture range each crop wants.
Run time depends on how fast your soil takes water in, so measure your soil infiltration rate. From the station's own readings we compute hourly reference evapotranspiration (ET0, FAO-56), which you can turn into an irrigation depth.
After the first showers the shallow reading jumps while the deeper one stays flat until the layer above it is full. That tells you whether the rain reached the roots or only wet the surface: how deep the first rains wet the soil.
Waterlogged soil runs short of air, and some crops are most exposed at early growth stages. A sensor that stays at the top of its range after rain is the signal to open the drains: how fast standing water starves roots of air.
Fertigation and salty water leave salt behind as the water evaporates. A rising EC trend between irrigations says it is time for a leaching run: soil EC under drip, and whether your borehole water is salting the field.
Planting rules written for colder countries wait for a soil temperature threshold that Kenyan soil usually passes early. The sensor shows temperature and moisture at seed depth together, which is the pair that decides emergence.
NuaSense sells the sensors and the data service around them, not pumps, valves or pipework. If your irrigation controller takes outside data, the API can feed it the readings. Nothing on this page is a forecast: every decision rests on what the instruments recorded.
Getting started
This is the whole process, from the first message to the first reading on your phone.
Send your crop, the number of blocks and how you irrigate, on WhatsApp or with the form below.
We reply with how many sensors you need, at which depths, and the station that brings them online.
Each sensor goes into the soil at the depth your crop needs, and the node box stays above ground where its solar panel gets sun. Message us if anything is unclear.
Once the station is installed and transmitting, readings appear on your dashboard about every 10 minutes.
Payment falls due one month after the station is installed and transmitting. If the system does not work out for you, you get all your money back within the first three months. Place of fulfilment: Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
Is it for you
Not sure where your farm sits? Our sister site works through whether a networked sensor system pays off for your acreage.
Your sensors read one field. The platform reads everything around it: 31 datasets over a single key, spanning farm telemetry, satellite, climate and market across four East African countries.
Field Notes
Practical pieces on reading soil data from Kenyan fields, for farmers and farm managers.
Questions
A NuaSense soil sensor costs KES 7,000. The version with two moisture and two temperature channels, for two depths, costs KES 9,000, and the version that also measures EC costs KES 10,000. The sensors come online through a NuaSense weather station, which costs KES 30,000. All prices exclude taxes.
Yes. The soil sensors send their readings by LoRaWAN radio to the NuaSense weather station, and the station carries them to the internet. The same station measures rain, wind, air temperature, humidity, air pressure and sunlight, so there is no other receiver to buy.
The node box that carries the sensors has its own small solar panel and a battery, and it can also be charged over USB-C. It needs no mains power and no battery changes in the field. The weather station is solar powered too.
Yes. Farmers install the sensors themselves, and it is easy: each sensor goes into the soil at the depth you choose, and the node box stays above ground where its solar panel gets sun. Message us on WhatsApp if anything is unclear.
Count blocks, not acres. A block that differs in soil, slope, crop or irrigation line dries at its own pace and needs its own sensor, while blocks that behave alike can share one. Send us your block layout and we will suggest how many sensors you need and where they go.
Ours does not. It measures moisture, soil temperature and, on one version, EC. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and pH come from a lab test of your soil. The NuaSense dashboard shows modelled soil texture, pH and water holding capacity for your location from iSDA Africa and SoilGrids maps of around 2016. That is background, not a soil test.
Get in touch
Tell us your crop, how many blocks you farm and how you irrigate. We reply with the sensors and depths we would use, the station that brings them online, and the price.