India’s Soils at a Crossroads: Why We Need a National Soil Health Policy

[Aaditeshwar Seth]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/indias-soils-crossroads-why-we-need-national-soil-health-g-v-ssksc/

We need a major initiative within the CoRE stack around soil health. Good tools for both monitoring and decision support around this important aspect are missing. Unlike water security which has seen a lot of research by hydrologists and many aspects are observable and can be modeled, and trees similarly are understood to some extent and decision support tools are available, but soil and lesser known ecosystems like grasslands are still blindspots I think around which the scope of data/tech is yet to be explored. So much to do!

This is a very comprehensive review of soil degradation processes: Rethinking Global Soil Degradation: Drivers, Impacts, and Solutions. Very long paper and even I have only skimmed, bookmarking here. 

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025RG000883?af=R

Adi

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Aaditeshwar Seth
Microsoft Chair Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi

Co-founder, Gram Vaani; Co-founder, CoRE Stack

Research | CoRE Stack | Gram Vaani | ACT4D 

Technology and (Dis)Empowerment: A Call to Technologists

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[Aaditeshwar Seth]

Thanks Suhel! Seismology to see the soil! 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Suhel Quader <suh...@ncf-india.org>
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: India’s Soils at a Crossroads: Why We Need a National Soil Health Policy
To: Aaditeshwar Seth <as...@gramvaani.org>

I don't know anything about soils, but came across this article, which seems to describe a significant breakthrough..

https://www.monbiot.com/2025/12/07/shaking-it-up/

[Aaditeshwar Seth]

https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/