REVIEW article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1548095
This article is part of the Research TopicRegenerative Agriculture for Soil Health, Greenhouse Gas Mitigation, and Climate ActionView all 11 articles
A Comprehensive Review of the Soil Health Status for Enhancing Agricultural Sustainability
Provisionally accepted
- 1Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo, Japan
- 2VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India
- 3National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
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Sustainable agricultural practices have become more crucial than ever as the world grapples with food insecurity and environmental degradation. Soil health, a fundamental attribute of agricultural productivity and ecosystem stability, plays a pivotal role in achieving global sustainability targets. Despite its importance, comprehensive analyses of soil health initiatives remain limited. This systematic review addresses this gap through a dual objective: first, to contextualize the critical role of soil health in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and second, to critically evaluate the implementation, impact, and policy relevance of India's Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme launched in 2015 to enhance soil fertility through sitespecific assessments and tailored fertilizer recommendations. Global research highlights the crucial role of soil health in promoting sustainable agriculture, and the SHC scheme has yielded notable results, including a 5-6% increase in crop yields and an 8-10% decrease in chemical fertilizer usage. Grounded in the framework of the SDGs, this paper highlights the SHC scheme's contributions to enhancing farm productivity, lowering input costs, and advancing environmental objectives. It further explores the policy landscape, identifies institutional gaps, and examines the potential for scaling and adapting these practices in other regions. This review offers evidence-based insights into the interplay between soil health, agricultural sustainability, and policy innovation, aiming to inform future interventions and promote international collaborations in sustainable land management.
Keywords: Soil health, Soil health cards, agricultural sustainability, Sustainable development goals, soil management practices, Climate change mitigation, Food Security and Poverty Reduction
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Timilsina, Khosla, Rahut, Jena and Sonobe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Raja Timilsina, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo, Japan
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