Chemically Degraded Soil: Strategies for Mitigating its Toxicity and Enhancing Sustainable Crop Production

Soil degradation, resulting from improper agricultural practices and chemical processes, leads to nutrient depletion and pH changes, which affect soil fertility and crop productivity. However, understanding its impact on soil health and identifying mitigation strategies are crucial for improving and sustaining agricultural production and food security. Exposure of the soil environment to abiotic stresses intensifies chemical degradation, further compromising soil health and posing threats to agricultural production. On the other hand, agronomic practices such as tillage management, cropping geometry, nutrient application, and waste handling are crucial for sustainable crop cultivation in degraded soils. In this review, we discuss the harmful effects of elevated soil pH, salinity, and heavy metal stresses on soil degradation, as well as the reduction in nutrient availability and uptake, leading to nutrient deficiency in plants. This review explores various conventional methods, particularly organic and inorganic fertilizer management, to improve nutrient uptake and translocation in plants under chemically degraded soil conditions. In addition, we discuss sensor-based precision agricultural technologies that accurately monitor soil parameters to improve soil health. The potential of microbial biostimulants and biofortification techniques to enhance soil microbial health, promote long-term soil biodiversity, and ensure sustainable plant production is also addressed.