Farmers used to bury a pair of underpants in the ground to see how long they would last.
The idea is that if there are more healthy organisms in the ground, they will eat the fabric quicker.
If you don't bury the pants now, they will be dug up the next year.
According to experts, more than 50% of the world's agricultural soil is already degraded.
A shocking number of people in India's farming sector take their own lives every day due to soil degradation and debt, according to a report.
A popular Indian guru called Sadhguru is leading a global campaign to improve soil health. Farmers should be given incentives to keep a minimum of 3% of organic content in their soil.
He says that if we take away the soil it will be over. We will all be left with desert if we don't address our soil problem.
Poor soil has consequences.
David Montgomery is a professor of geography at the University of Washington and the author of three books on soil, including Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations.
He says that the reality of most soil degradation is a build up over time.
If you're degrading land faster than you're rebuilding it, it's going to be harder to support agriculture. It's hard to grow food when fertility is held in the top part of the soil.
excessive use of weed killers is one of the causes of soil degradation. A piece of technology that has made a difference in farming is the plow.
This very old piece of technology is a quintessential part of farming life from the small holdings in Africa to the huge mechanised farms of North Dakota.
In order to get rid of weeds, modern plowing exposes the soil to harmful organisms that are vital for its health. The microbes are exposed to the sun and die.
The expansion of the scale, speed and productivity of farming has been achieved through the use of the combine harvester.
We need to rethink technology's role in farming according to Ben Raskin.
He wants technology to support soil and plant health.
New tools might be what that means. John Deere is one of the farm equipment suppliers that is introducing no-till machinery.
Seed planters that drop seeds into small holes instead of using a big blade are included.
Or it could mean using machines to help plant and weed. The robotti is a device made by a firm in the Nordics. The development of this was aided by the help of a musician from a band.
The cover crops that are planted to stop the earth being left bare help to improve soil structure by increasing the organic matter in it.
We might need to take the focus away from above ground solutions and dig a little deeper.
Most of the tech focus in farming has been on pesticides and machines, but now it is time to think about biology.
Scientists don't think they have identified all of the soil life.
For a long time, the world below ground was invisible to science. One of the last frontiers of science is soil.
Understanding the make-up of the soil could lead to the creation of new industries that focus on providing farmers with the best soil nutrition.
Simple and old fashioned techniques can give rise to interesting and potentially radical ideas.
One experiment used willow woodchip mulch around trees to suppress weeds and disease. The immune response in the trees was stimulated by the acid in it.
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The soil beneath our feet may hold the secrets to some larger human medical discoveries.
The first new class of antibiotics in 30 years were discovered by sifting through soil samples.
There are more modern ways of measuring the quality of the soil for farmers who don't want to part with their underwear.
It is possible to send soil samples to a laboratory for testing. In the age of data and internet access, smartphones can be used.
The director of Harvest Agri is Jack Ingle. Farmers take a soil sample, add it to a test tube, and then transfer it to paper.
The sample can be scanned for a number that indicates how many organisms are present.
The quality of the soil is measured by many people.
A group of scientists have created a database of soil health measurement from all over the world. The EU established the EU Soil Observatory to collect and track soil data.
Prof Montgomery believes that the future of farming technology could be about learning from the past.
He says that it's taking some of the ancient wisdom, like crop rotation and cover crops, and merging it with modern technology.
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