The book addresses every aspect of soil health management starting from the soil physical, chemical and biological health, use of AI-driven machine learning approaches in soil health management, drought monitoring and assessment, hyperspectral remote sensing and thermal imaging, assessment and monitoring of soil ecosystem services in a lucid language. It is having eighteen chapters altogether that systematically cover the advanced approaches and techniques of soil and plant health management. The book deals sensory technology, spectroscopic methods, simulation modelling, remote sensing and UAVs which is indeed an apt topic and relevant to the present context.

The book extensively discusses the complex soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and emphasizes developing tailored technologies suitable for diverse agro-climatic conditions. It thoroughly examines modern technological approaches, including thermal imaging, hyperspectral remote sensing, soil quality and ecosystem service assessments, simulation modeling for abiotic stress management, drought monitoring, nanotechnology applications in agriculture, AI-driven machine learning methods for soil health assessment, and conservation agriculture strategies.

Dr. Pragati Pramanik Maity, is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India under Indian Council of Agricultural Research. She completed her B.Sc. (Agriculture) from Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (UBKVV), West Bengal, in 2004 with distinction and received the University merit medal. She did her M.Sc in 2006 and Ph.D. in 2009 from the Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi.  During her M.Sc. degree, she was awarded the ICAR-Junior Research Fellowship, and during Ph.D., the Senior Research Fellowship by ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. She joined Agricultural Research Service in the year 2009. Her research areas are: Soil physical health assessment under different conservation agricultural systems and other land uses, application of machine learning approaches in soil health prediction and ecosystem service assessment under different management practices and Geoinformatics. She was associated as Principal Investigator (PI), DST-NRDMS scheme. She has been working as PI, NTPC project and Co-PI, Consortia Research Platform on Conservation Agriculture (CRCPA) and Co-PI of various ICAR-IARI in-house projects. Since 2019, she has been serving as an Associate Editor, Agronomy Journal (American Society of Agronomy, USA) and since 2024, she has been as Associate Editor, Soil Science Society of American Journal (American Society of Soil Science, USA). She has published more than 60 research papers in international/national journals of high repute, 15 book chapters, 15 popular articles, 1 practical manual and 1 training manual, edited 3 conference proceedings and souvenir and securing >1450 citations.  As of now, she has guided, four M.Sc students and one PhD student. Her significant awards and recognitions are: Secretary, ISAP, New Delhi; Councillor (2024-2025), ISSS, New Delhi; Received INSA- Travel Assistance; ISTRO, Netherlands Scholarship; DST-SERB International Travel Grant-2023. 

Dr. Debarati Bhaduri, is a Senior Scientist (Soil Science) in the Crop Production Division, ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack, India. Born in CoochBehar (West Bengal) she did her B.Sc. (Ag.) from UBKV (Pundibari), M.Sc. (Ag.) from GBPUA&T (Pantnagar) and Ph.D. (Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry) from IARI, New Delhi. She joined Agricultural Research Service in the year 2010. Her research interests are: Soil Quality, Soil Carbon Dynamics, Root-biochar Interactions, Soil Stress, and Soil Microbial Activity. So far, she has authored more than 80 publications along with 4 books, 30 book chapters and 8 technical bulletins, securing >3000 citations. She is serving as editorial board members in journals like Plos One (USA) and Discover Soil (Springer Nature). She was a visiting Scientist & postdoctoral fellow, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences, University of New England & Armidale (New South Wales), Australia during 2016-17. Her significant awards are: Endeavour Research Fellowship by Australian Govt. (2016), Pran Vohra Award from Indian Science Congress Association (2018), DST-SERB-Power Grant (2022), SCON Recognition award (2023), University Gold Medal (2006) and few others. 

Dr. K.K. Bandyopadhyay is working as a Principal Scientist in the Canal Water Management Program at ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was born in Bhubaneswar in 1969. He did his Ph.D. (1997) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He joined Agricultural Research Service in 1999. Dr Bandyopadhyay served as scientist (1999-2004), Scientist (Sr Scale) (2004-2005) at the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Senior Scientist (2005-2010) at the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Regional Station, Coimbatore and Principal Scientist (2010-2023) at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar (2023 till date). He received specialized training on crop modeling in the Environment Science Division, IARI and on Carbon Sequestration at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. So far, he has authored more than 167 research papers and 19 review papers in peer reviewed journals of national and international repute along with 8 manuals and 19 book chapters, securing h index of 42; i10 index of 86 and >8200 citations. He has served as research guide of 2 PhD and 10 MSc students. His significant awards include: (i) Fellow, Indian Society of Soil Science (2022); (ii) Recognition Award of Society for Conservation of Nature (SCON) (2021) (iii) Dr. K.G. Tejwani Award of Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationists for the biennium 2014-15 for Natural Resource Management (2017) (iv) Fellow, “National Academy of Agricultural Sciences” (2016), (v) 12th International Congress Commemoration Award of Indian Society of Soil Science (2015), (vi) Associate “National Academy of Agricultural Sciences” (2008), (vii) IMPHOS-FAI Award on “Role of phosphorus on yield and quality of crops” (2005), (viii) Zonal Award for the East Zone of the Indian Society of Soil Science for outstanding Doctoral Research (1999), (ix) Fertilizer Association of India Silver Jubilee Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research in Fertilizer Usage (1998); (x) IARI merit medal for outstanding academic performance in doctor of philosophy degree program (1999). He also served as the Secretary of the Indian Society of Soil Science during 2022 to 2023.

Dr. Joydeep Mukherjee, FAAM, is a Principal Scientist (Agricultural Physics) in Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India. He did his B.Sc. (Ag.) from Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva Bharati,  (Sriniketan), M.Sc. (Agricultural Physics) from ICAR-IARI (New Delhi) and Ph.D. (Agricultural Physics) from IARI, New Delhi. He started his career from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana in 2001. His research interests are: micrometeorology, remote sensing, GIS, Precision Agriculture and climate change. So far, she has authored more than 130 publications along with 5 books, 12 book chapters. He is serving as editorial board members in journals like Journal of Agrometeorology. He did post doctorate from The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. He is a Fellow of Association of Agrometeorologists. He has handeled more than 10 research project funded by ISRO, DST, ICAR, NAIP etc. Dr. Joydeep Mukherjee is an eminent teacher of Agricultural Meteorology. He has guided 14 M.Sc. and 2 Ph.D. students as major advisor. The World Meteorological Organization invited him to act as a committee member to construct syllabus on Agrometeorology. 

Dr. Subash Nataraja Pillai, is presently holding the position of Head & Principal Scientist (Agricultural Meteorology), Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.  He had joined Agricultural Research Service in 1997 and worked at ICAR-RCER, Patna and ICAR-IIFSR, Modipuram in various capacities.  Born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, he did his MSc in Meteorology and PhD from CUSAT. He is having more than 100 publications in peer reviewed National/International Journals which is having high impact factor.  He worked as Lead PI of Agricultural Modeling Intercomparison and Improvement (AgMIP) - ICAR Collaborative Project, ICAR-University of Nebraska-Lincoln Collaborative Project of Global Yield Gap Atlas and Database Administrator of CGIAR-Challenge Program on Water and Food-Indo-Gangetic Basin and also PI of  NICRA.  He developed tool for estimation of GHG emission from Integrated Farming System to identify mitigation component of IFS system from small and marginal farms in India.  He visited more than 20 foreign countries and provided invited talk in American Society of Agronomy, AGU, AgMIP and GYGA Global workshops etc. At present, his research areas include assessment of climate change impact at farm/household level using multi-models, measurement of GHG emission from IFS, agro-advisory services, Crop simulation modelling, rainfall and drought climatology, remote sensing and GIS.  He is the Fellow of the Association of Agrometeorologists (AAM) and also the Vice-President of AAM National Executive Council 2023-25 and also Vice-President of IMS National Council 2024-26. 

1. Thermal Imaging Techniques for Crop Health Assessment  Koushik Banerjee, P. Krishnan, Suman Dutta, K.G. Mandal Shreya Nivesh, Vikas Paradkar, Suman  Sen, Debasish Roy S.K. Purbey, S.K. Samal

2. Use of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing in Agriculture for Sustainable Soil and Crop Health
     Assessment: Application and Prospect Debasish Chakraborty, Nilimesh Mridha, Arijit Barman and Koushik Bag

3   Recent Advances in Soil Quality Assessment for Better Agriculture Debarati Bhaduri, Sunanda Biswas, Manimala Mahato and Amrita Daripa

4.  Quantification and Assessment of Ecosystem Services from Agriculture Dhiraj Kumar, Nishant K Sinha, Jitendra Kumar, RH Wanjari Rahul Mishra, Avinash Pandey and Anil Nagwanshi

5.  Modelling Soil Water Balance and Root Water Uptake K.K. Bandyopadhyay, S. Pradhan and A. Sarangi

6.  Assessment and Management of Soil Hydrothermal Regimes for Better Agriculture Nandita Mandal and Pragati Pramanik Maity

7.  Sensor-based Soil Health Management in Precision Farming  Abir Choudhury, Sidhu Murmu, Kanu Murmu, Nafisa, Samayita Basu and Arup Sarkar

8.  Role of Nanotechnology in Managing Soil Health Pedda Ghouse Peera Sheikh Kulsum, Rubina Khanam, Mohammad Shahid, Rajalaxmi Sahoo

9.  Utilizing Crop Modelling to Enhance Abiotic Stress Resilience in Agriculture   Anupama Aryal, Shivani Kothiyal, Sonam Sah and RN Singh

10.  Soil Biological Health Assessment and Management for Improving Crop Growth  Sonali Paul Mazumdar, Sunanda Biswas, Debarati Datta, B. Majumdar, N.M. Alam, Anindita Pal and Gouranga Kar

11.  Impact of Agricultural Management Practices on Soil Strength and Root Growth Nishant K. Sinha, Dhiraj Kumar, Rahul Mishra, Jitendra Kumar, J. K. Thakur, Alka Rani, Avinash & Pandey, N.K. Lenka

12.  Soil Chemical Health Assessment for Sustainable Crop Production Bibhash Chandra Verma, Soumya Saha, Mahasweta Chakraborty and Prodipto Sow

13.  Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Soil Health and Crop Growth Studies Abhradip Sarkar and Pragati Pramanik Maity

14.  Advances in Monitoring Pond Soil and Water Health for Better Aquaculture Abira Banerjee and G.N. Chattopadhyay

15.  Soil Management Practices to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emission in The Era of Climate Change Apoorva M.S. and Arti Bhatia

16.  Advances in Water Management for Productive Utilization of Salt–Affected Soils Bhaskar Narjary, Nirmalendu Basak, Satyendra Kumar and Arvind Kumar Rai

17.  Microwave Remote Sensing for Estimation of Soil Moisture Sugavaneshwaran Kannan and Joydeep Mukherjee

18.  Drought Impacts on Soil Properties and Productivity of Some Arable Crops in India Nandita Mandal, Sujan Adak, Sonali Paul Mazumdar Pragati Pramanik Maity