Punjab's soils are alluvial, deep and originally fertile. Fifty years of intensive rice and wheat has changed them.
The measured problems are low organic carbon, micronutrient deficiency, the formation of a hardpan under the plough layer from repeated puddling for paddy, salinity and waterlogging in the south-west where drainage is poor and the water table is shallow, and the opposite problem of over-extraction in the centre.
The south-western districts, Muktsar, Fazilka and parts of Ferozepur, have a waterlogging and salinity problem alongside a canal water dependency, which is the mirror image of central Punjab's falling table. Two opposite water crises in one small state.
The remedies are known: residue incorporation, crop rotation with legumes, laser levelling, drainage, and reduced puddling. All are promoted and all are partially adopted.
Soil is the asset that everything in Punjab rests on and it is the one nobody protests about.
The hardpan forms at plough depth from repeated wet tillage for paddy and it blocks root growth and water movement. Breaking it needs deep tillage that most holdings cannot justify.
Residue burning removes the organic matter that would otherwise go back into the ground. That is the part of the stubble argument that is about the field rather than about the air.
Soil testing laboratories issue soil health cards across the state. Uptake is low and the recommendation on the card is rarely what gets applied.