Addressing the challenge of agricultural soil degradation: from inducing mechanisms to macro-micro management strategies

Abstract

Owing to the synergistic driving effects of human activities and environmental degradation, nearly 30% of the world's soil is at risk of degradation, leading to a total degraded area exceeding 1 billion hectares. Furthermore, this poses a significant risk to the soil quality and agricultural productivity of more than 20% of the world's agricultural land, thereby severely threatening global food security and human health. Consequently, the implementation of strategies aimed at preventing and managing agricultural soil degradation becomes imperative. Presently, despite the considerable attention given by researchers to soil degradation, their emphasis tends to be on isolated policy measures or technological approaches for prevention and control strategies. However, given the escalating intricacy of the global environment, relying exclusively on singular measures proves inadequate in effectively mitigating the profound occurrences of global soil degradation. Consequently, this review comprehensively examines the inducing mechanisms and impacting consequences of agricultural soil quality degradation. Subsequently, through the amalgamation of regulatory policies and technological methods, and with an emphasis on the fusion of conventional and intelligent measures, this study elucidates three pivotal strategies for the prevention and management of soil degradation: soil amendments, soil conservation techniques, and sustainable agricultural soil management. Lastly, this paper examines future strategies for preventing and controlling soil degradation from both macro and micro perspectives. In the face of the severe challenges posed by soil degradation today, this review offers valuable insights for future global soil degradation management efforts.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Environment Development and Sustainability, 2026 · DOI ↗