Year: 2026 | Month: June | Volume 13 | Issue 1
Soil Health–Driven Strategies for Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Horticulture: A Critical Review with Comparative Insights and Future Directions
Debarpita Datta Ray1
Arju Ali Khan2
Arindam Das3
Jeeban Kumar Pramanik4
Goutam Kumar Pandit4
Deb Prasad Ray5 and Prithusayak Mondal6*
DOI:10.30954/2347-9655.01.2026.17
Abstract :
Horticulture plays a pivotal role in global food and nutritional security, yet its sustainability is increasingly constrained by soil degradation driven by intensive tillage, mono-cropping, and excessive chemical inputs. This review critically synthesizes soil health–driven strategies as a foundation for resilient horticultural systems, adopting a comparative and systems-based perspective. Soil health is conceptualized as the integrated functioning of physical, chemical, and biological properties that collectively regulate productivity, ecosystem stability, and climate adaptability through services such as nutrient cycling, water regulation, carbon sequestration, and disease suppression. A comparative evaluation of key strategies—including organic matter management, biological interventions, conservation tillage, cropping system diversification, integrated nutrient management, water–soil management, and agroforestry—demonstrates that integrated approaches consistently outperform isolated or input-intensive practices. Organic amendments enhance soil carbon and structure, while microbial inputs improve nutrient cycling but show variable field performance. Conservation tillage and diversification strengthen resilience, though often accompanied by short-term yield fluctuations and management complexity. The review highlights that synergistic interactions among practices are central to long-term sustainability, yet adoption remains limited due to economic constraints, knowledge gaps, inconsistent bioinput performance, and policy biases. Emerging frontiers such as soil microbiome engineering, nanotechnology, precision agriculture, and carbon farming offer promising opportunities but require validation across diverse agro-ecological contexts. Overall, this review underscores that resilience in horticulture is a managed outcome, achievable through holistic, soil-centric strategies supported by interdisciplinary innovation, policy alignment, and region-specific implementation frameworks.
Highlights
- Soil health integrates physical, chemical, and biological dimensions to drive resilient and sustainable horticultural systems.
- Integrated soil management strategies outperform conventional input-intensive practices through synergistic improvements in soil function and resource-use efficiency.
- m Organic matter and microbial interventions play central roles in enhancing nutrient cycling, soil structure, and ecological stability.
- Trade-offs between short-term productivity and long-term sustainability necessitate systems-based, context-specific management approaches.
- Emerging technologies like microbiome engineering, nanotechnology, and precision agriculture offer new pathways for soil health enhancement.
- Adoption barriers highlight the need for policy support, farmer awareness, and region-specific implementation strategies.
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