In a significant breakthrough for soil health monitoring, researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) have developed a scalable, low-cost method to assess soil degradation using a combination of proximal and satellite-based diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Published by the British Society of Soil Science, the study marks a transformative step in diagnosing and addressing one of agriculture’s most persistent threats—soil degradation—across semi-arid regions.

Titled “Assessing Soil Degradation in Agricultural Landscapes of Semi-Arid Tropics Using Proximal and Remote Sensing-Based Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy,” the research offers a faster, non-destructive alternative to conventional lab-based soil testing. The method reduces the time needed for assessment from weeks to minutes while maintaining high accuracy, dramatically improving the feasibility of large-scale, real-time monitoring.

At the heart of this innovation is the ability to estimate a Soil Degradation Index (SDI) by analyzing key soil properties such as organic carbon, nutrient availability, and erodibility. The team applied laboratory-based spectroscopy alongside Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to map soil degradation across dryland farming systems in Maharashtra, India. The results are striking—laboratory DRS achieved a predictive accuracy of R² = 0.81, while satellite-based assessments reached R² = 0.52, underscoring the reliability and scalability of this dual-approach model.

Beyond diagnostics, the study offers actionable insight: irrigated crops in degraded areas displayed markedly better resilience and yield performance than rainfed crops, signaling that targeted irrigation could serve as a vital adaptation strategy in semi-arid farming.

“This innovation perfectly aligns with the Global South’s urgent need for climate-smart tools that bridge the lab-to-field gap,” said Dr Stanford Blade, Deputy Director General–Research and Innovation at ICRISAT. “By enabling fast and cost-effective soil degradation assessment, we are empowering farmers and policymakers with timely insights to protect soil health, boost resilience, and secure food systems in the semi-arid tropics.”

Dr Rebbie Harawa, Global Research Program Director–Resilient Farm and Food Systems at ICRISAT, emphasized the broader mission: “This research is about democratizing soil health knowledge. Our goal is to catalyze a paradigm shift in how vulnerable food systems anticipate and adapt to soil threats, ensuring resilience becomes embedded in every acre and every policy decision.”

Dr Kaushal K. Garg, Principal Scientist in Natural Resource Management, highlighted that this approach is not simply remote sensing—it is precision agriculture for smallholders. By calibrating DRS specifically for semi-arid landscapes and integrating it with freely available satellite data, ICRISAT has made a high-accuracy, high-resolution degradation monitoring system accessible to low-resource contexts. The model enables 10-meter resolution mapping of degradation hotspots, providing a data-driven foundation for interventions such as targeted irrigation, soil restoration, and adaptive cropping.

Lead author Dr Israr Majeed noted that while the current model focuses on bare soil conditions, future research will expand to use hyperspectral remote sensing, enabling continuous soil health monitoring even under crop cover or vegetation. This leap would dramatically expand the utility of the technology across growing seasons and land types, bringing precision agriculture closer to smallholder fields than ever before.

As the global agriculture sector confronts intersecting challenges of climate stress, land degradation, and food insecurity, ICRISAT’s soil assessment breakthrough could become a cornerstone in developing resilient, sustainable farming systems.