Isda Africa iSDAsoil API
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentData EnrichmentAddress Validationbearer3 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Fetch soil property values at any latitude and longitude in Africa - pH, organic carbon, texture, and nutrient levels - backed by the iSDAsoil 30 m resolution dataset.
Use for: Get the soil pH at a specific farm location in Kenya, Retrieve organic carbon content for a coordinate in Nigeria, List all soil property layers available in the iSDAsoil dataset, I want to compare soil texture between two field sites
Not supported: Does not handle weather, satellite imagery, or crop yield prediction - use for African soil property lookup only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for iSDAsoil API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The API serves soil property and agronomy data for locations across Africa, derived from the iSDAsoil 30 m resolution dataset. A POST /login endpoint exchanges credentials for a bearer token, GET /isdasoil/v2/layers describes the available soil layers, and GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty returns property values at a supplied latitude and longitude. The dataset covers properties such as pH, organic carbon, texture fractions, and macro and micronutrient levels.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the iSDAsoil API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the iSDAsoil API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fisda-africa.com%2Fisdasoil" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fisda-africa.com%2Fisdasoil" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with iSDAsoil API.
Resolve a latitude and longitude to soil pH and organic carbon at multiple depths
Pull texture fractions (sand, silt, clay) for a specified field location
Retrieve macronutrient and micronutrient levels such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and zinc
List the full catalogue of soil layers available with units and depth ranges
Authenticate against the iSDAsoil platform and obtain a short-lived bearer token
Use Cases
Patterns agents use iSDAsoil API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Agronomic recommendation engine for African smallholders
Generate fertiliser and crop recommendations tailored to a farmer's specific field by calling GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty with the field coordinates. The agent uses returned values for pH, organic carbon, and macronutrients to drive a recommendation rule set. iSDAsoil provides 30 m resolution coverage across Africa, which is precise enough to pick up within-farm variability that uniform regional advisories miss.
For coordinates lat=-1.286389 lon=36.817223, fetch pH and nitrogen via GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty and return a fertiliser recommendation
Carbon credit field assessment
Estimate baseline soil organic carbon for projects that need to demonstrate carbon stock changes over time. The agent collects organic carbon values across a project's polygon by sampling many coordinates through GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty. This provides a free public-data starting point before any in-field sampling is commissioned, reducing project setup costs.
Sample organic carbon at 50 grid points within the supplied polygon and return the mean value
Crop suitability mapping for development programmes
Build crop suitability layers for agricultural development programmes by combining iSDAsoil texture and pH values with crop tolerance thresholds. The agent calls GET /isdasoil/v2/layers to confirm the available properties, then iterates GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty across the programme area. Pairs naturally with rainfall and temperature datasets that have similar spatial coverage.
For each coordinate in the input grid, fetch sand, silt, and clay percentages and label cells where clay is greater than 35 percent
AI agent advising agricultural extension officers
An AI agent supporting agricultural extension officers needs grounded soil data when answering field-specific questions. Through Jentic the agent searches for 'get soil property at coordinates' and the matching iSDAsoil operation is loaded with the access token already injected from the vault. The officer gets a precise answer about a farm without needing direct API integration knowledge.
Given a farm at lat=7.946527 lon=37.766602, fetch pH and recommend whether liming is needed
Key Endpoints
3 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for isdasoil api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/login
Exchange credentials for a bearer access token
GET
/isdasoil/v2/layers
List available soil property layers
GET
/isdasoil/v2/soilproperty
Fetch soil property values at a coordinate
POST
/login
Exchange credentials for a bearer access token
GET
/isdasoil/v2/layers
List available soil property layers
GET
/isdasoil/v2/soilproperty
Fetch soil property values at a coordinate
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the iSDAsoil API by hand means running the POST /login exchange against api.isda-africa.com, holding and refreshing the bearer token, and passing latitude, longitude, and property parameters on every soil lookup. Through Jentic you install once, import iSDAsoil from the API Directory, store the credentials once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
iSDAsoil exposes read-only layer and soil-property lookups where the coordinate travels as a query parameter, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as reading soil pH at a coordinate. It stays a lookup client and cannot reach anything beyond the operations you allow.
Credential isolation
Your iSDAsoil username and password are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance, which performs the login token exchange at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context, nor does the bearer token.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'get soil pH at a coordinate', and Jentic returns the matching iSDAsoil operation with its input schema, including the required latitude, longitude, and property parameters, so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading the docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using iSDAsoil API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for iSDAsoil API?
iSDA Africa documents the API on its developer site rather than publishing an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call iSDAsoil via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the iSDAsoil API use?
iSDAsoil uses bearer token authentication. POST /login exchanges username and password for an access token, which is then sent as Authorization: Bearer on subsequent calls. Through Jentic, the username, password, and refresh logic are held in the vault - agents receive only the scoped token.
Can I retrieve soil pH for a specific coordinate?
Yes. Call GET /isdasoil/v2/soilproperty with latitude, longitude, and the property identifier 'ph' as query parameters. The response contains the predicted value plus an uncertainty range.
What are the rate limits for the iSDAsoil API?
Rate limits are not declared in the spec. iSDA Africa applies fair-use throttling tied to the issued account, with quotas set on a per-partnership basis. Confirm the limit for your account before scripting bulk grid extractions.
How do I list every soil property layer available through Jentic?
Search Jentic with the query 'list iSDAsoil layers', load the GET /isdasoil/v2/layers operation, and execute it after authenticating. The response lists layer names, units, and depth ranges so agents know which property identifiers to pass to the soilproperty endpoint.
Is iSDAsoil coverage limited to Africa?
Yes. The dataset is built specifically for the African continent at 30 m resolution. For locations outside Africa the API returns an out-of-coverage response - pair with a global dataset such as SoilGrids for non-African geographies.
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