Abstract:Soil quality is the core issue for ensuring China’s food security, and soil health is the top priority of soil quality. Comprehensive, rapid and accurate acquisition of soil background data is the prerequisite for achieving homogeneous soil management and formulating balanced fertilization strategies, which will play a key role in improving non-point source pollution caused by unreasonable fertilization and achieving balanced grain yield increase. This study reviews rapid soil testing methods both domestically and internationally. Based on previous research, it proposes a technical approach to rapidly detect soil nutrient concentrations by calculating the gamma quanta released during the decay of radioactive nuclides. This approach includes the development of rapid soil testing equipment, the establishment of soil nutrient inversion models, and the use of digital mapping technology to create detailed soil nutrient prescription maps for cultivated land. It is of great significance for grasping the situation of soil nutrient data in China, clarifying the soil nutrient inventory and ensuring China’s food security. Finally, to accelerate the acquisition of soil nutrient background data in China, three development suggestions are put forward to promote the application of this technology nationwide in combination with the informatization construction of high-standard farmland.