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Soil-health frameworks in agri-food systems. A review
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Soil-health frameworks in agri-food systems. A review

Powell Mponela, Vimbayi Grace Petrova Chimonyo, Mazvita Chiduwa, Righteous Kachali, Joyce Grevulo-Minofu, Cleopatra Kawanga, Santiago Lopez-Ridaura and Sieglinde Snapp
Agronomy for sustainable development, Vol.46(3), p.34
06/01/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-026-01111-z
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-026-01111-zView
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Abstract

Agriculture Agronomy Green & Sustainable Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Science & Technology - Other Topics
Soil health is central to agroecological transitions, yet guidance for integrating it into agri-food system design and monitoring remains fragmented. Institutions increasingly use frameworks to define indicators, guide interventions, and report progress against climate, biodiversity, and food-security agendas. However, to our knowledge, there is no integrative soil health framework which coherently links biophysical diagnostics, socio-institutional enablers, and multiscale accountability. This leaves critical gaps in design, sequencing, and measurement of agroecological transitions. Here we review how soil health is operationalized within agroecology and agri-food systems and translate these patterns into an actionable programming guide. We reviewed 64 frameworks and extracted 652 indicators across 12 agroecological principles to build a framework-by-principle evidence matrix. Frameworks were classified by use-orientation (theory, practice, analysis), and indicator thematic profiles were analyzed using hierarchical clustering with adaptive branch detection. The major findings are as follows: (1) framework evolution exhibits four chronological waves with shifts from conceptual foundations to operational measurement and outcome reporting, alongside changes in global and regional agenda setting and a rising demand for comparable indicators; (2) clustering identified five soil health design domains separating biophysical and socio-economic principles and revealing stable micro-constellations beyond earlier pathway framing. These include soil management and input stewardship, soil-health assessment, agroecological and ecosystem-based, integrated landscape and livelihood, and policy- and outcome-based. These findings were translated into a sequenced, multi-domain programming architecture that operationalizes complementarity across diagnostics, stewardship implementation, ecosystem safeguards, landscape-livelihood embedding, and iterative learning, thereby closing the gaps between farm practices, governance mechanisms, and outcome monitoring for soil health.

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