Improving Soil Quality and Sustainable Agriculture: The New Tools, Technologies and Practices

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue seeks high-quality original research, reviews, perspectives, and case studies that advance understanding and application of approaches to enhance soil quality and promote sustainable agricultural systems. We welcome contributions that bridge fundamental soil science with practical innovations, integrating biological, chemical, physical, digital, and socioeconomic dimensions. Emphasis is placed on scalable, climate-resilient, and context-appropriate solutions that support food security, ecosystem services, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Novel soil health indicators and monitoring frameworks (biological, chemical, physical, and integrated indices).
• Precision agriculture, remote sensing, IoT, and data-driven tools for soil management.
• Soil microbiome studies, biofertilizers, soil remineralizers, and microbial interventions to enhance fertility and resilience.
• Conservation tillage, cover cropping, crop rotations, agroforestry, and other regenerative practices.
• Organic amendments, biochar, compost, and sustainable nutrient management strategies.
• Soil carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas mitigation, and climate-smart land management.
• Erosion control, salinity remediation, and remediation of contaminated soils.
• Socioeconomic assessments, policy instruments, and participatory approaches for technology adoption.
• Case studies demonstrating successful translation of research to practice in diverse agroecosystems.

We encourage interdisciplinary submissions that quantify trade-offs, co-benefits, and long-term outcomes for productivity, biodiversity, water quality, and farmer livelihoods. Manuscripts should clearly articulate methodological rigor, relevance to sustainability goals, and implications for policy or practice. Contributions that include open data, reproducible methods, or comparative analyses across regions are particularly welcome.

This Special Issue aims to catalyze collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to accelerate the adoption of effective soil-improving technologies and practices worldwide.

Prof. Dr. Éder de Souza Martins
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.