Systematic review assesses soil health research trends, highlighting gaps in India's Soil Health Card framework.
Key Points
This review evaluates current soil health research and its relevance to India’s Soil Health Card framework.
Conducted a PRISMA-2020-compliant systematic review of field-based peer-reviewed Indian studies (2020-2025).
Identified trends in soil health indicators, management approaches, and analytical frameworks.
Compared findings with the existing Soil Health Card framework.
116 studies reviewed, showing chemical indicators dominated assessments (majority), with less focus on physical (66.4%) and biological indicators (63.8% microbial, 39.7% enzymatic).
56.9% of studies included fully integrated assessments combining chemical, physical, and biological dimensions.
Notable regional and management-specific variations in indicator selection across different agroecological contexts.