The traditional analysis method of soil can not obtain the required soil information in a short time because of its disadvantages of time consumption and high cost.How to detect the soil information rapidly and accurately is an inevitable requirement for modern agriculture.As a rapid,inexpensive,non-destructive and pollution free analytical method,diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy is widely used in many fields,and it has been no doubt an important approach to obtain soil quality related messages.The potentials of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy(NIR,780-2 500 nm) and diffuse mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy(MIR,2 500-25 000 nm) to analyse the chemical and physical characteristics of soil attract many countries attentions.In the present paper,the principles and methods of near-and mid-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopic techniques were introduced concisely.The applications of this technique in analysis of soil were reviewed，and some comments and prospects concerning the future development of this technique were presented.