India's farmers are finding it increasingly harder to coax yields from their fields, as soil stress and land degradation add to the challenges, they already face-in feeding rapidly growing population in an age of climate change. Nearly a third (32% of India's land area is degraded while a quarter (25%) is undergoing desertification, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in an article published last year citing reports. Moreover, the country loses 5.3 billion tons of soil every year due to water and wind erosion according to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Soil stress, with the impact of the climate crisis only exacerbating it, is acting-as-a drag on farmland productivity, driving up input costs and weighing on farm incomes. However, most crucially, it is threatening India's hard-won food security, with the country needing its farmlands to produce more food than they ever must feed the world's largest and yet still growing population. Fortunately, there is hope. India's farmlands have not yet crossed the point of no return. The government, too, has actioned numerous initiatives over the years aimed at mitigating soil degradation from watershed management projects and the promotion of resource-responsible precision farming techniques to the soil health card programme. In the Global Soil Conference held in 2024, government representatives emphasised the need to address concerns surrounding soil health, in a sign that the highest echelons of government have taken note of the issue. In fact, there is a National Soil Policy reportedly in the works. The draft National Soil Policy aims to provide an overarching framework for protection, restoration, and sustainable management of soils in India, involving