Soil Organic Carbon Assessment for Carbon Farming: A Review

This review is motivated by the urgent need to improve soil organic carbon (SOC) assessment methods, which are vital for enhancing soil health, addressing climate change, and promoting carbon farming. By employing a structured approach that involves a systematic literature search, data extraction, and analysis, 86 relevant studies were identified. These studies were evaluated to address the following specific research questions: (a) What are the state-of-the-art approaches in sampling, modeling, and data acquisition? and (b) What are the key challenges, open issues, potential advancements, and future directions needed to enhance the effectiveness of carbon farming practices? The findings indicate that while traditional SOC assessment techniques remain foundational, there is a significant shift towards incorporating model-based methods, machine learning models, proximal spectroscopy, and remote sensing technologies. These emerging approaches primarily serve as complementary to laboratory analyses, enhancing the overall accuracy and reliability of SOC assessments. Despite these advancements, challenges such as soil spatial and temporal variability, high financial costs, and limitations in measurement accuracy continue to hinder progress. This review also highlights the necessity for scalable, cost-effective, and precise SOC measurement tools, alongside supportive policies and incentives that encourage farmer adoption. Finally, the development of a “System-of-Systems” approach that integrates sampling, sensing, and modeling offers a promising pathway to balancing cost and accuracy, ultimately supporting carbon farming practices.