India produced a record 354 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2024-25, an increase of more than 100 million tonnes over the last decade. However, higher agricultural production has not translated into better nutritional outcomes. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2025 Report, 18.7% of Indian children below five years suffer from wasting, while more than half of women aged 15–49 years are anaemic. This paradox highlights a deeper concern – Declining Soil Health in India, a silent threat to India’s food security. 

State of Soil Health in India

India has achieved record foodgrain production of 354 million tonnes in 2024-25, but the condition of its soils is becoming a matter of concern. 

• Nutritional Deficiency: According to Soil Health Card data (2025-26) based on more than 93 lakh soil samples, nearly 73% of soils are deficient in nitrogen, while many soils also lack important micronutrients such as zinc and iron.
• Declining Soil Organic Carbon: The level of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), which supports microbial activity, helps plants absorb nutrients, improves soil structure, enhances water retention, and sustains long-term fertility, has declined in many agricultural regions.
  • For example, in several parts of Punjab and Haryana, SOC levels have fallen to 0.2-0.4%, reflecting severe degradation of soil quality.

Reasons of Declining Soil Health

India’s soil health has deteriorated gradually due to farming practices that prioritised higher production but paid insufficient attention to restoring the nutrients and organic matter removed from the soil.

• Rice-Wheat Centric Agricultural Model: Post- Green Revolution procurement and policy support became heavily concentrated around rice and wheat, gradually reducing the cultivation of pulses, millets, and oilseeds that help maintain soil balance.
• Intensive Mono-Cropping: Continuous cultivation of the same crops year after year places constant pressure on soil nutrients without providing adequate time or mechanisms for natural replenishment.
• Excessive Dependence on Nitrogen-Based Fertilisers: Fertiliser use increasingly became skewed towards nitrogen, leading to nutrient imbalances and neglect of other essential macro and micronutrients.
• Inadequate Organic Replenishment: Crop residues, compost, farmyard manure, and other organic inputs have not been added back to the soil in sufficient quantities to compensate for nutrient extraction contributing to declining Soil Organic Carbon (SOC)
• Weakening of Soil Biological Systems: Continuous nutrient extraction and declining organic matter have gradually damaged the biological processes through which soils naturally absorb, recycle, and retain nutrients.
• Policy Bias Towards Productivity Rather than Soil Health: Agricultural policies have largely focused on maximising yields, while soil restoration and balanced nutrient management received relatively less attention.
• Growing Dependence on Chemical Inputs: As soil fertility declined, farmers increasingly relied on chemical fertilisers to sustain yields, creating a cycle of further soil degradation over time.

These factors have collectively weakened the soil’s natural ability to sustain productivity, making soil degradation a long-term challenge for India’s agricultural sustainability.

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Implications of Declining Soil Health 

The implications of declining soil health extend far beyond agriculture.

• First, it threatens long-term food security. Soil degradation gradually reduces the productive capacity of agricultural land, making future yield growth more difficult.
• Second, it affects nutritional security. Deficiencies in micronutrients such as zinc and iron in soils can eventually influence the nutritional quality of crops.
• Third, soil health is closely linked to water security. Research shows that a 1% increase in Soil Organic Carbon can improve an acre’s water-holding capacity by up to 25,000 gallons. For a country where a large share of agriculture remains rain-fed, this is critically important.
• Fourth, soil degradation increases climate vulnerability. A 2025 study published in Soil and Tillage Research found that higher SOC levels can reduce warming-induced yield losses, particularly in dryland regions.
• Finally, declining soil quality pushes farmers towards greater dependence on chemical inputs to maintain productivity, increasing cultivation costs and environmental pressures.

Andhra Pradesh’s Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) Programme

Andhra Pradesh’s Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) programme provides an important example of how soil health can be restored while maintaining agricultural productivity. 

Launched in 2016, the programme had expanded to nearly 17.74 lakh farmers, covering 9.26 lakh hectares across 4,116 Gram Panchayats by 2025-26.

• The initiative focuses on rebuilding soil health by restoring organic matter, reducing dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and encouraging diversified cropping systems. 
• By improving soil moisture retention and biological activity, it seeks to strengthen the natural processes that sustain long-term soil fertility.

Early research suggests that natural farming plots can achieve yields comparable to conventional farming while lowering input costs and improving farm incomes. More importantly, the programme helps restore the ecological resilience of agricultural systems, making them better equipped to withstand climate stress, water scarcity, and soil degradation.

Way Forward

• Promote Balanced Nutrient Management: Shift from excessive nitrogen use towards balanced application of macro and micronutrients based on Soil Health Card recommendations.
• Increase Soil Organic Carbon (SOC): Encourage the use of compost, farmyard manure, green manuring, crop residues, and bio-inputs to improve soil fertility and moisture retention.
• Diversify Cropping Systems: Promote pulses, millets, oilseeds, and crop rotation to reduce pressure on soils caused by intensive rice-wheat cultivation.
• Scale Up Natural Farming Models: Replicate successful initiatives such as Andhra Pradesh’s Community Managed Natural Farming programme in other states.
• Strengthen Soil Health Card Programme: Improve soil testing infrastructure and ensure timely, location-specific advisories to farmers.
• Reorient Agricultural Subsidies: Align fertiliser and procurement policies with sustainable farming practices rather than production-centric incentives alone.
• Promote Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Integrate soil conservation with climate adaptation strategies to enhance resilience against droughts, heat stress, and erratic rainfall.
• Enhance Farmer Awareness and Extension Services: Strengthen capacity-building programmes on sustainable soil management and integrated nutrient management practices.
• Encourage Conservation Agriculture: Promote minimum tillage, residue retention, and cover cropping to reduce soil degradation and improve soil structure.
• Support Research and Innovation: Invest in research on soil restoration, bio-fertilisers, regenerative agriculture, and region-specific sustainable farming practices.