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This study aims to improve the land parcel quality to improve the Mega Regency Housing Block K's spatial layout in Sukaragam Village, Serang Baru District, Bekasi Regency. The method used in this study is qualitative, with data collection techniques in the form of observation and documentation. The stages of the research carried out were (1) Primary and secondary data collection, (2) Data analysis, and (3) the final stage, which included map processing and plane repositioning using AutoCAD. The results of this study stated that the Mega Regency Housing Block K was by the GeoKKP Application, which resulted in the repositioning of 113 plots of land, village administration boundaries, 267 building use rights (HGB), 78 property rights (HM), 21 plots having multiple NIBs, 2 Public Facilities, and 12 Housing Blocks, Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kualitas bidang tanah untuk memperbaiki tata ruang pada Perumahan Mega Regency Blok K yang terletak di Desa Sukaragam, Kecamatan Serang Baru, Kabupaten Bekasi. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu metode kualitatif dengan tekhnik pengumpulan data berupa observasi dan dokumentasi. Tahapan penelitian yang dilakukan yaitu (1) Pengumpulan data primer dan sekunder, (2) Analisa data, (3) tahap akhir yang meliputi pengolahan peta dan reposisi bidang menggunakan AutoCAD. Hasil penelitian ini menyatakan bahwa Perumahan Mega Regency Blok K sudah sesuai dengan Aplikasi GeoKKP yang menghasilkan reposisi bidang tanah sebanyak 113 Bidang Tanah, Batas Administrasi Desa, 267 Hak Guna Bangunan (HGB), 78 Hak Milik (HM), 21 Bidang Memiliki NIB Ganda, dan 2 Fasilitas Umum/Fasilitas Sosial (Fasum/Fasos).

We study how the slow deterioration of soil, caused by climate change, affects internal migration and household resettlement. Rural households are expected to move when they face worsening soil conditions, as soil degradation is detrimental to agricultural productivity. The other possibility is that they can get stuck in a poverty trap. We use the Integrated Household Survey in Malawi for the years 2010-2016. Soil depletion is not a random process and to account for its endogeneity, we instrument soil degradation by using distant climate shocks and controlling for recent weather conditions. We find that severe soil nutrient constraints push households to send their members away. The underlying mechanism is that soil degradation is harmful to agricultural productivity, and therefore food security, which incentivizes households to seek better opportunities by pushing their members to migrate.

This study examines the introduction of a combination of cocoa husk biochar which has been a cocoa plantation waste combined with fermented cocoa leaf waste. This study was conducted in West Sulawesi. This study used a randomized block design using a factorial model where the first factor was the administration of cocoa husk biochar with 3 levels, namely without administration (B0), 6 kg plant biochar-1 (B1), 12 kg plant biochar-1(B2) while the second factor was application of fermented cocoa leaf waste (K) which consists of 3 levels, namely without giving cocoa leaf waste (K0), giving 6 kg plant-1 (K1), biochar 12 kg plant-1 (K2). The nine treatment combinations were repeated three times to obtain 27 plant samples. The analysed soil characteristics are calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K) showed that the combination of cocoa rind Biochar and fermented cocoa leaf waste had an effect on increasing calcium (Ca) by 9.23. Magnesium 1.66 and for the element Potassium had no significant effect on the interaction of the combination of cocoa husk biochar and fermented cocoa leaf waste, but gave a very significant effect on the administration of biochar 12 kg plants-1.

Marginal land has received wide attention for its potential to produce bioenergy feedstocks while minimizing diversion of productive agricultural land from food crop production. However, there has been no consensus in the literature on how to define or identify land that is marginal for food crops and beneficial for bioenergy crops. Studies have used different definitions to quantify the amount of such land available; these have largely been based on assumed biophysical thresholds for soil quality and productivity that are unchanging over space and time. We discuss the limitations of these definitions and the rationale for considering economic returns and environmental outcomes in classifying land as marginal. We then propose the concept of “socially” marginal which is defined as land that is earning close to zero returns after accounting for the monetized costs of environmental externalities generated. We discuss a broad set of criteria for classifying land as socially marginal for food crops and suitable for bioenergy crops; with these criteria, this classification depends on spatially varying and time‐varying factors, such as climate and market conditions and policy incentives. While there are challenges related to identifying this marginal land, satellite and other large‐scale datasets increasingly enable such analysis at a fine spatial resolution. We also discuss reasons why landowners might choose not to convert bioenergy‐suitable land to bioenergy crops, and thus the need for policy incentives to support conversion of land that is socially beneficial for bioenergy crop production.

In Vietnam, agriculture development is one of the most important tasks to secure food resources and reduce poverty. The north of Vietnam is the high mountain areas which are in the low development stage, agriculture is the main source of income of households. Ha Giang is a typical mountainous province, in which land management is very important in the development of economic. To get good land management, land evaluation is needed. The land quality evaluation is an important step in the land evaluation process. The paper presents the application of a geographical information system (GIS) and establish the land quality map in Ha Giang province in accordance with the Food & Agriculture Organization framework. The evaluation process starts from defining the land quality indicators which are in 4 categories: Climatic, Terrain, Soil, and Hydrological. The indicators are standardized and classify according to the FAO land quality evaluation system, all of data is processes in GIS environment, each indicator is a data layer in GIS database. The result is maps of indicators and the land quality map of Ha Giang province. There are 126 land quality units in which, more than half of them are of Feralsol. The result of the study can be used in various fields of management as agriculture, land use, infrastructure development,…

Land characteristics are factors that affect crop productivity. Different conditions of land characteristics will cause differences in crop productivity. Evaluation of land suitability can be used as a basis in assessing land quality to determine the factors of land characteristics that cause differences in crop productivity. The purpose of this study was to determine actual land suitability for cayenne pepper, determine which land characteristic affect crop productivity, and modify land suitability based on actual productivity suitability classes. This study was conducted in Wagir District, Malang Regency with a survey method on 8 Land Map Units (LMU) with 42 observation points. Quantitative parameters observed in this study include soil texture, pH, CEC, C-Organic, base saturation, N-total, P-available, exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, Na, and productivity of cayenne pepper in the field. Data analysis was performed by correlation test and multiple regression with the stepwise method. The results showed the actual land suitability class of cayenne pepper in the study area was S3 and N. Modifications to the characteristics of the land that most influence the productivity of cayenne pepper in the field, namely the pH of the soil produce new criteria with classes S1: 6.0-7.6; S2: 5,7–6,0; S3: 4,6-5,7; and N

Biomass is considered to be a significant renewable energy source for the next one to two decades. In countries with conditions similar to the Czech Republic, biomass is even considered a dominant renewable source. The article therefore focuses on the determination of biomass potential on agricultural and forest land for energy purposes and it discusses the potential risks in determining the objective amount of biomass potential due to the ongoing climate change and the need to protect the land quality. According to current analyses, it is possible to estimate for the Czech Republic that the potential of biomass from forest stands will have to be reduced by about 60%–70% in one decade’s outlook. Similarly, a reduction in the potential of residual biomass from agricultural land in the range of 10%–15% should be taken into account.

Cocoa as leading plantation commodities which is quite essential for the national economy that decreasing productivity from 2012 to 2018. The low productivity of cocoa is caused by the fact that cocoa plants that are planted do not meet the optimum growth requirements. Land quality as an optimal growth factor varies greatly in land and time quality, so it requires an in-depth study, one of which is the parametric approach. This approach ana-lyzes the land requirements climate for the suitability of specific cocoa plan-tations in particular regions, so this study aims to determine the characte-ristics of the land that correlate with cocoa productivity in a specific region. The study was conducted from July to December 2019. Also, this study aims to establish a land index through a deductive parametric approach in the Polewali Mandar district as a sample of research locations. The Research purpose of this study was to determine the land characteristics climate) in Polewali Mandar District. This study used a qualitative-quantitative mix analysis. Quantitative analysis is used in determining the correlation be-tween land characteristics climate and cacao production in each sub-district. Determination of land characteristics climate that has a significant effect using regression analysis Primary data were obtained from direct observation, while secondary data were obtained from related institutions. Besides, the determination of the profile location based on production data and cocoa crop distribution through satellite imagery. Qualitative and quan-titative analysis using regression data analysis was used. The results showed that the climate and soil conditions of the Polewali Mandar District were very suitable for the level of land suitability. All parameters tested in this study illustrate that land characteristics climate in the Polewali Mandar District is very suitable for the optimum growth requirements of cocoa plants.

Shallot (Allium ascalonicum L) is one type of horticultural crop which is considered good for farmers to cultivate. This commodity to be able to grow and produce optimally requires land quality and certain characteristics and management. It is necessary to evaluate the suitability of the land to predict land use in accordance with the requirements of a plant, so that it is expected to be able to increase the productivity of onion plants. The practice garden of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nusa Nipa (UNIPA) Maumere is a practice location for Faculty of Agriculture students. The land is intended for cultivation of food crops and horticulture. The purpose of this study was to determine the suitability of land onion plant development. This research has been carried out in the Faculty of Agriculture UNIPA practice garden. The method used is the arithmetic matching method by matching the observations in the laboratory and field with the requirements for growing shallots. The results of this study indicate that the overall practice of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Nusa Nipa Maumere has similarity in land suitability classes, namely very suitable class (S1) with limiting factors such as temperature (tc), rainfall (wa), texture (t), drainage (d), soil depth (k), C-Organic, total N, P2O5, K2O, surface slope (l), erosion hazard, and rock conditions (b). This shows that the practice garden of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nusa Nipa Maumere is very suitable for agricultural cultivation activities for shallots.

Land consolidation and land compensation require the evaluation of the productivity of the exchanged or recompensed areas. A serious deficiency in land consolidation regulations set by the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act, 1991 is the 10% restriction on the difference in the exchanged areas before and after land consolidation. The simultaneous action of the current methodology for equating lands by their quality, together with the legal restrictions of this Act, limits the implementation of land consolidation to only highly productive lands of the 1st to the 3rd land category. The objective of this paper is to suggest a method for extending the implementation of land consolidation to larger areas and to recommend a fairer calculation method in equating lands by their quality. Two approaches to landed property exchange are united. One of them is based on the mean estimates of land productivity per land category (MLPE) (considering the Bulgarian Land Categorization System), the other one – on the detailed land productivity estimates of each landed property (DLPE). The adapted FAO Land Suitability Classification is suggested to identify areas suitable for land consolidation. Regression analysis and expert assessment were used. The data required for GIS processing are specified and systemized. A proposal for the improvement of the legal framework is given.

The increasing social problems on population, resources and environment enable the interaction between nature and humanity to become one of the most active research fields in the world. In this paper, we propose a novel framework of human–land sustainable computational system, which fully advances the progress of the development of our society utilizing the cloud computing and big data analysis technologies. Particularly, the study on quality of land management has attracted much attention. With the proposed framework, multi-user multi-cloud environment (MUMCE) is firstly presented, and evaluation of land quality is regarded as various services, such as soil acidity and alkalinity, soil thickness, soil texture, smoothness and field layout. Then, this paper formulates the problem of formal concept analysis-based multi-cloud composition recommendation with regard to multiple users. To address this problem, this paper first adopts the collaborative filtering to obtain the services request of the target user, then the service–provider concept lattices are constructed, and finally the best multi-cloud composition is selected and further recommended for the target user. Meanwhile, the corresponding algorithm is also devised. A case study is conducted for evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) is a comprehensive way to study agricultural issues. So far, to our best knowledge, no study has applied the SLF to examine the influence of land quality on land use intensively. The current research examines the effects of land quality on farmers’ decision-making on land use in Vietnam by modifying the sustainable livelihoods framework and using the fixed effects regression model. The method controlled the household and commune-level unobserved invariant characteristics and resulted in more robust estimates than pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation. The sample is a five-wave panel dataset of 2008-2016 with 1,534 farm households. The results reveal that land quality affects land-use choices through several aspects of land quality. More specifically, regarding topography, plot fertility level, plot locations, and soil and water conservation, results show that their effects reflect the cultivating practices for each land-use type in the sample. Findings also show that the irrigation system positively affects rice production in Vietnam. Policymakers should consider various aspects of land quality when designing policies and programs relating to land use, irrigation distribution, and especially the master plan for agricultural production and rural development. Flexible guidance for land uses of each type is closely connected with land quality in each region that may be most suitable for sustainable agriculture development.

Dieses Teil-Positionspapier fokussiert das Themenfeld "Wirtschaft und Arbeit". Es steht im Zusammenhang mit den parallel erarbeiteten Positionspapieren der Arbeitsgruppe der ARL-Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft NRW und trägt mit diesen zusammen dazu bei, Zukunftsperspektiven ländlicher Räume in Nordrhein-Westfalen vorzustellen. In Nordrhein-Westfalen tragen die ländlichen Räume - ungeachtet großer regionaler Differenziertheit - maßgeblich zur wirtschaftlichen Leistungskraft des Landes bei. Im regionalen Wettbewerb positionieren sie sich zunehmend mit eigenen regional-ökonomischen Profilen, regionalspezifischen Stärken und Potenzialen. Maßgebliche Herausforderungen für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und für den Wandel der ländlichen Arbeitswelten ergeben sich neben dem Klimawandel aus dem demographischen Wandel, der Zunahme von Nutzungskonkurrenzen, der Digitalisierung sowie aus dem Agrarstrukturwandel. Die Corona-Pandemie setzt aktuell zusätzliche Akzente, deren Folgewirkungen noch nicht vollständig absehbar sind. Als Ergebnis kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit den Herausforderungen sehen die Autorinnen und Autoren Zukunftsperspektiven ländlicher Räume als Wirtschaftsräume in NRW maßgeblich begründet in fünf Themenfeldern. Sie beziehen sich auf ein verändertes Verständnis von Wachstum, die Fachkräftesicherung und -bindung als zentraler Faktor wirtschaftlicher Stabilität und Entwicklungsfähigkeit, auf Handlungsoptionen zur Entschärfung des Problems von Flächenverfügbarkeiten und -konkurrenzen, auf veränderte, regional angepasste Konzeptionen von Wirtschaftsförderung und nicht zuletzt auf einen zukunftsweisenden Umgang mit einem sich weiter ausdifferenzierenden Agrarsektor und einer sich verändernden Rolle von Landwirtschaft in der Gesellschaft. Die genannten Themenfelder werden in fünf Kernforderungen vorgestellt und erläutert. Empfehlungen zu jeweils daran geknüpften Handlungsfeldern runden die Abhandlung ab. The partial position paper on the topic of "Economy and Labour" is related to the parallel position papers of the working team of the ARL-state working group NRW. Its task is to contribute to the presentation of future prospects for rural areas in North Rhine-Westphalia, to discuss problems and to make recommendations for stimulating and implementing measures. In North Rhine-Westphalia, rural areas - despite great regional differentiation - contribute significantly to the economic performance of the state. In regional competition they are increasingly positioning themselves with their own regional-economic profiles, region-specific strengths and potentials. In addition to climate change, major challenges for economic development and for the transformation of rural working environments arise from demographic change, an increasing land use competition, digitization and structural change in agriculture. The corona pandemic is currently setting additional accents, the consequences which are not yet fully foreseeable. As a result of a critical examination of the challenges, the future prospects of rural areas as economic regions in NRW are based on five main issues. They relate to a new understanding of growth, the securing and retention of skilled labour as a central factor of economic stability and development capability. Furthermore they relate to options for action to reduce the problem of land availability and competition, to changed, regionally adapted concepts of economic development and, last but not least, to a forward-looking, approach to an increasingly differentiated agricultural sector and a changing role of agriculture in society. The above topics are presented and explained in five corerequirements. Recommendations on the respective fields of action round off the treatise.

Land use change reflects fundamental transformations in society. To better understand factors contributing to current land use changes in Alabama, we expand on existing land use studies by employing a generalized least-square method nested in a system of equations for the analysis. We correct for endogeneity issues in our paper by incorporating a control function technique. Using repeated land use data from 1990–2018, we focus on analyzing factors affecting land use changes among timberland, agricultural, urban, and conservation land use types. Our results reveal that land quality factors influence land allocation and land use decisions. We also indicate that population density is a driver for replacing timberland for urban development and agricultural purposes. We show that interest rates are important factors in timberland use decisions as timberland investments are sensitive to capital cost. We provide a basis for future simulations of nationwide land use changes under different economic and policy scenarios, as we offer new insights and contribute to the existing knowledge into public policies that are related to land use planning and management.

Yoram Barzel was always aware that competition is ubiquitous and takes many forms, and he was among the first to analyze settings where individuals compete on the basis of time, rather than price. This paper applies his insights to study the Oklahoma land rushes, where thousands of individuals raced to establish property rights to land. A simple modification of Barzel's analysis generates a model of rationing by racing, and we test its predictions using new data on the timing and location of over 73,000 homestead claims within the five distinct land rushes and one lottery. We find that increases in land quality or decreases in the cost of racing generate corresponding increases in the equilibrium speed, implying that potential rents are dissipated by investments in speed. The analysis highlights the lasting significance of Barzel's insights regarding non-price competition.

Inefficient allocation of resources has been documented in West African farming systems where food is produced by extended family farms on multiple plots managed by different members. We revisit this question in Mali by testing fertilizer use and productivity differentials, while introducing soil nutrient measurements as indicators of land quality. In contrast with previous studies, we find little evidence that intrahousehold allocation of fertilizer is inefficient. Gender and generation gaps in productivity persist but lessen as we control for land quality. Findings suggest that women’s fields may be less fertile but may also reflect distinctive objectives and modes of production.

The aim of this article is to examine the needs of nomadic-pastoral land users with respect to EIA theory, methods and effectiveness based on literature review by applying Retief (2010)’s framework. The article intends to identify these needs and analyse whether EIA addresses them sufficiently and appropriately. Retief (2010)’s framework defines theory, methods (quality) and effectiveness as three main interrelated themes of environmental assessment. Our review was guided by these three themes and moreover, using nomadic pastoralism as a test case, we attempted to expand this broad framework into a four-step approach that can be used to systematically examine EIA literature. The approach first adopts the Retief (2010)’s framework and secondly, identifies issues of nomadic-pastoral land use which matter the most with respect to Retief (2010)’s themes. The next step selected 156 articles for literature review considering the issues identified previously and the fourth step examined the selected articles using a concept-centric review and a content analysis. Nomadic-pastoral land users need EIA theory to incorporate irrational logic and complex and unpredictable socio-ecological features of nomadic-pastoral land use. Decisions made based on the rational decision-making model in EIA cannot sufficiently incorporate the needs of nomadic-pastoral land use due to uncertainties associated with rational decision-making and different power, values and interests of stakeholders in pasture land resources. Furthermore, the needs of nomadic-pastoral land users with respect to EIA methods are related to impact pathways and dynamic character of land use. EIA methods systematically address impact pathways. However, the current EIA methods primarily focus on static land use, and do not address sufficiently and appropriately dynamic nature of land use. For nomadic-pastoral land users, maintaining land quality in nomadic pastoralism and participation in EIA are the most important issues with respect to effectiveness of EIA. However, empirical data are needed to examine whether these needs are addressed in EIA. Nevertheless, the current frameworks for evaluation of effectiveness of EIA are sufficient for assessment of EIA's capacity for addressing the needs of nomadic-pastoral land users. Further studies should aim at incorporating the nature of socio-ecological interaction and dynamics into EIA theories and developing suitable models on herding mobility and strategy for impact prediction in EIA.

Two groups of soil texture classification, differing in limit diameters for particular soil fractions, are used in Poland. The older groups of classifications consider soil particles as < 1 mm and divide them into sand (1.0–0.1 mm), silt (0.1–0.02 mm) and fine or flowable particles (< 0.02 mm). These classifications are used, in a version which originated in 1956 and here denominated as PTG/Musierowicz 1956 in land quality assessment and elaboration of soil agricultural maps. Newer versions of these classifications – professional standard BN-78/9180-11 (1978) and division of soils in agronomic categories described in 1986 – are used in fertilizer recommendations and in agricultural drought monitoring. According to the new soil texture classification PTG 2008, the upper diameter limit for soil particles is 2 mm and these parts are divided into sand (2.0–0.05 mm), silt (0.05–0.002 mm) and clay (

A study was performed to assess the trends of productivity on land with different land quality to derive land performance indicators. “Performance” of the productivity in this context means the local productivity in a given period as compared to the range of productivity levels measured from land units with similar properties within the whole are of the assessment (Ivits and Cherlet 2016, Sims 2017). Land quality is indicated by the potential productivity of agricultural land in Hungary. In this study we used actual biomass productivity indicators based on EEA (2020) and land productivity indicators based on Tóth et al (2018). The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) as proposed by Jin and Eklundh (2014) was used to define trends in actual productivity of terrestrial vegetation for the whole agricultural land of Hungary. The 100 m resolution national spatial dataset of land productivity (Tóth et al. 2018) is based biophysical land properties, ie. soil, terrain and climatic properties. The study covered the whole grassland and cropland areas of Hungary and concerned the period of 17 years between 2000 and 2016, inclusive. The procedure to identify performance, which takes biophysical land quality information into account corresponds to the Good Practice Guidelines of CSIRO/UNCCD (Sims et al. 2017). The land quality (land capability) map was used to assess the Performance of land units in comparison to the potential of lands with similar properties. Our study reveals that declining vegetation production is equally experienced in all capability classes of croplands, affecting 0.7-2% of the land areas of the capability classes, marginal, average, good and very good. On the other hand increased production is seen in higher shares of marginal land (15% of marginal croplands and 14% of marginal grasslands) and on that of average capability (9,5% and 17.7% in croplands and grasslands respectively), while increasing productivity is limited to 2,6-6,1% of good quality land. This significant difference between the areal extent of low and high quality land where productivity increase is measured suggest that differences in natural fertility of soil is offset by improving climatic conditions. Management factors may play less important role, as forest and grassland areas – which are less intensively managed in Hungary – show a general trend of increasing productivity in around 20 % of their total area too. Increasing productivity is less widespread on more productive land, which can be explained by the favourable soil properties including good water management, which can secure high production also in years with less precipitation. Similar argumentation can hold also for good quality grasslands.The current study, taking also a soil-based indicator into account is a step to a direction for including meaningful biophysical indicators to degradation assessment.The study was conducted by the Institute of Soil Sciences of the Agricultural Research Centre in the frame of service contract with the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture.

The formation of an economically developed management system for the country's agro-industrial complex cannot be considered only from the point of view of a separate science. Land resources are the source of profit, which is involved in almost all sectors of society. Land preservation and improvement is required to ensure an economic security and competitiveness of each region of the Russian Federation). The dynamics of changes in the areas of Svetloyarsky district of the Volgograd region in the context of municipalities is analyzed. The actual deviation of the area of Privolzhsky rural settlement amounts to 2,3 % of the statistical data. The boundaries and areas of the used plots of arable land in the Raigorod settlement do not coincide with the data of the state cadastral registration, the discrepancy of only one land plot is 422,44 hectares. By implementing GIS-technologies, the data were obtained for 2355 arable land plots, whereof the irrigated land area amounts to 52138 hectares, instead of the potentially possible 19455 hectares, that exceeds the settlement's capabilities by 2,7 times according to the statistical dataBy implementing GIS-technologies, the data were obtained for 2355 arable land plots, whereof the irrigated land area amounts to 52138 hectares, instead of the potentially possible 19455 hectares, that exceeds the settlement's capabilities by 2,7 times according to the statistical data.

“Land take” is a process of land-use change in which the agricultural and natural land is taken by residential, industrial, infrastructure and other developments. This change causes the loss of a non-renewable resource, such as the agricultural/natural soil, and the relative natural, cultural and landscape resources. The growing awareness about the loss of ecosystem services related to land take led developed countries to try to reduce the quantity of land taken with new laws and regulations. The European Union has set the goal of zero land take by 2050. It is not only a problem of limiting and slowing down the phenomenon, but it is always clearer that the quality of the land taken has to be assessed and adequately considered during the land-use planning process. In fact, in some cases like in the Lombardy Region, the law focuses not only on reducing the amount of land take, but also on limiting the loss of land with “high qualities”, requiring municipalities to assess the productive, naturalistic and landscape qualities of the territory. In this paper, the authors develop, using the GIS technology, a methodology to define and calculate a composite “Land Quality Index” (LQI). The methodology has been applied to a case study in the Lombardy region and has allowed to assess the quality of the territory in a rigorous and transparent way using available official data. In order to take into account the relative importance that stakeholders and land-use planners can give to the different components of LQI, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) has been performed ad 4 different scenarios have been developed. LQI can support the land-use planning process in an ex-ante evaluation of different transformations hypotheses and in the definition of “quality-based” quantitative thresholds and monitoring of their trend over the time.

Land consolidation is an effective technique in land management that contributes to sustainable rural development. Land valuation is one of the most important steps in land consolidation because it plays an important role in the reallocation process. Land valuation is also an important problem in Turkey as in many countries in the world. Because the lands will be reallocated at the end of the consolidation process, it is very important to determine the precise value of each parcel. However, the methods used in land valuation in many countries lag behind current techniques and technologies. For this reason, a new method for land valuation is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop a new model based on multi-criteria calculations that is suitable for today's technologies and addresses the weakness in the current land valuation methods. In a case study of Solak, Antalya, Turkey, we identified fourteen key land value factors. Those factors were assigned weights by the Land Valuation Committee, academic staff, engineers, and local landowners. The weights were then integrated into a framework called the Land Quality Index. The land quality index factors are the criteria for evaluating the geographical, physical, and socio-economic structure of the region. The scores for each factor on each parcel were determined using GIS software. The total score of fourteen factors was then converted to a 100-point scale, that comprised the Land Quality Index. The land value of each parcel was determined by adding the soil index to the Land Quality Index. In our study, we also created three different models to investigate how the parameters were apportioned during the land valuation. We found that, while the current method used by the government agency (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works) classified the lands into five groups, our methods classified the lands into 17, 20, 24 groups, respectively. In addition, while the deduction rate was 4.97 % in the current method, they were 4.89 %, 4.86 % and 4.85 % in our new models, respectively. The method we proposed in this study determined land values more accurately, precisely, and fairly compared to current method used by General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works. It is suggested that our models could be used instead of the current method in the land consolidation works in Turkey.

Critical land has become a problem in the world. Critical land is very detrimental to the health of the land. Several factors cause the land to become critical. One of them is the use of land that is not by the capabilities of the land. If no repairs made, the land will be physically, chemically, and biologically damaged. Klaten Regency is one of the regencies in Central Java Province, which has quite extensive critical land. It is necessary to monitor and improve land quality regularly to avoid critical land problems. Data and information on critical land obtained from Klaten Regency processed into a decision support system. Decision Support System uses a combination of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique For Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods. In this research, a Web-based Decision Support System created to determine the critical land area in Klaten Regency. The information system created has an alternative menu and criteria that determine the potential of critical land in Klaten Regency, making it easier for users to obtain information.

This paper examines the connection between widows' land inheritance rights and land investments in Zambia. We study whether the threat of land expropriation upon widowhood deters households from fallowing, applying fertilizer, and employing labor-intensive tillage techniques. Variation in inheritance by widows is based on customary village practices, which we observe in surveys of village leaders. Controlling for possible confounding factors, both OLS and IV estimates show lower levels of land investment by married couples in villages where widows do not inherit. Concern over prospective loss of land by the wives reduces investment in land quality even while the husband is alive.

At present, the lands fragmentation in little parts for family interests is done by the try and mistakes method, in which, the technician try to delimit the areas in similar dimensions and proportions for each interested. They do it based in theier perception and experience. The aim of this paper was to define a conduct line for the treatment of questions referent to the lands division and verify if the fragmentation proposed in a rural property at Londrina, Parana state, in Brazil, was fair, considering as a critery, the land suitability. The rational land division was done based at the land use capacity system. It was applied a relative value to each area portion in agreement with its capability. As the equivalent area value of the each fragment consider the land quality, the final results should be similar. However, there is a large diversity of territories. The datas show that the ten resultant areas of the division proposed for the rural imovel present variated proportions of the diferents classes. Like this, with the division proposed by the expert, it was obtained area fragments very diferents related to the land quality.

With the problem of severe weather events having significant impacts on harvests in Britain, this study has looked at how small-scale food producers use agroecology to adapt to adverse weather conditions; 23 sites growing food using agroecology across the British Isles in areas severely disadvantaged to agriculture were investigated. Because the climate in these areas is generally hostile to horticulture (often in combination with other factors such as land quality), all the participants have to adapt to the prevailing weather conditions and frequent severe weather events. Through detailed interviews, a range of adaptations to specific weather hazards, and their impacts, has been recorded. The adaptations have been grouped into nine different responses types and then analyzed. Results show that the biggest driver for a change in adaptation responses has been drought, and the most consistent adaptation response has been to problems associated with heavy rainfall. With participants showing a varying level of adaptation to severe weather hazards, this study indicates that growers’ experience and ingenuity are factors influencing adaptation and consequently resilience to severe weather. The study acts as a useful scoping study for the potential of the various methods collected in a knowledge base to be reviewed by stakeholders for scaling up for wider adoption by farmers willing to adapt to climate variability.

In this paper, we modeled water trading in southern Alberta by incorporating irrigation technologies and crop choices. We consider six irrigation technologies and twelve crops with a variation in land quality to examine the adoption gains from water trading. The results are summarized to account for the gains from water trading and the probability of farmers switching to efficient irrigation technologies to cultivate profitable crops. Simulation results suggest that famers are more likely to follow rational adoption approach in using the gain from water trading to adopt efficient irrigation technologies. This is more likely to occur when the net gain is higher than the cost of adopting an irrigation technology. However, sensitivity analysis shows that high crop price regimes and provision of subsidies on the impact of water trading on technology adoptions could encourage farmers to adopt improved irrigation technologies to produce profitable crops. Effective policies to provide incentives to farmers to adopt efficient irrigation technologies and to improve crop yields may be necessary for the study area.

This study aims at assessing the most prevalent type of poverty in rural Mozambique, and if the causes of chronic and transitory poverty are similar to recommended policy, strategies to address each of them caused by different factors. This paper concludes that, most poverty is transient (66%) than chronic (34%), unlike in earlier studies where the determinants of chronic and transient poverty are not necessarily similar. However, it is recommended to prioritize addressing the chronic poverty given its damaging and long-lasting effects. Also, it is believed that by addressing chronic poverty some synergies can be generated, which allow tackling of the transient poverty as well. The most important set of variables for transient poverty are the household landholdings, head’s age, family and hired labor, land quality, and livestock. All these covariates tend to increase the transient poverty, except the family labor which is likely to decrease it. The same variables are important to chronic poverty, in addition to education especially in men, where the number of members with self-employment and widowed household heads has a negative effect on chronic poverty. Policies aimed at reducing chronic poverty should concentrate more on improving household characteristics such as investing in education, agricultural reform that encourages landholding expansion and energy such as human power or animal traction for farming while reducing transient poverty would call for policies oriented at allowing economically active families to earn income for their livelihoods. Key words: Chronic, transient, poverty, Mozambique, panel data.

The uniqueness and specifics of the land significantly affects both the organization of agricultural production and the rural area management. In order to make well-founded management decisions the economic subjects and public authorities need scientific grounding for assessment of land potential and its use efficiency. The authors suggest using three approaches to land quality and use assessment: agro-climatic potential, land quality score and agricultural production per hectare. Uniting these approaches into single assessment procedure produces a fairly objectively estimation of the economic potential of agricultural land in each selected territory.

The land use changes and farmers’ unreasonable land use behaviors continue to threaten China’s agricultural land, exacerbating the impact of pollution. The factors that persuade farm households to perform pro-environmental actions are preliminary efforts to strengthen environmental protection. The current study aims to better understand how the dual interest preferences of rural households are interrelated and influence their environmental behavior. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data from 4 provinces in China to develop new methods to measure the dual interest preferences of farmers and to study their impact on pro-environmental behaviors. The structural equation model (SEM) in Stata14 was used to analyze the relationship between latent and observed variables and to understand their impact on farmers’ environmental behavior. The results showed that all the observed variables have the expected signs and have a significant relationship with their latent variables. With the coefficients of 0.76, 0.88, and 0.64, the underlying variables related to the households’ dual interest preferences are statistically significantly correlated. The coefficient 0.34 of the latent variable ensures a direct and significant impact on farm households’ pro-environmental behavior, suggesting that non-uniformity preferences or conflicts exist between the short- and long-term economic interests. Similarly, a positive and significant coefficient of 0.28 suggests the non-uniformity of preferences in short-term economic and social interests. All the fitness indices ensured that our model fits well. To improve the environment and land quality, the current research has policy implications for the adoption of environment-friendly pesticide and organic fertilizers.

Outside forests, Andhra Pradesh is greening, and we are learning by how much— and why. Our objectives are to (1) map smallholder forest plantations in Andhra Pradesh using multitemporal HLS S10 and/or very-high spatial resolution commercial satellite data, and (2) determine the drivers of plantation forest establishment. We have (1) developed a land use model that integrates land quality and spatial aspects of the farm with market variables and farmer production decisions, (2) implemented a household-level socio-economic survey, and (3) completed a Sentinel 2-era classification that separates natural from planted forest with 94% accuracy. Plantation forestry is rapidly expanding in Asia, and understanding the extent, drivers, and ramifications of these new trees outside forests is vital.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the results of assessing the impact of land quality on the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises. Methodology / approach. In this study, we used such methods: econometric modeling (for the study of the relationship between land quality and competitiveness of farms); economic-statistical and monographic (for the assessment and analysis of the impact of land quality on the competitiveness of enterprises); abstract-and-logical (for theoretical generalization and analysis of the research results); graphical (for the visual representation of the revealed dependencies). Our research has been done on a selected sample of agricultural enterprises of districts of Kharkiv, Volyn and Chernihiv region, which represent all the soil-climatic zones of Ukraine. The time range of this study covers the years 2010–2016. Results. This study presents empirical evidence for the impact of land quality on the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine. The obtained results prove the hypothesis of a positive relationship between land quality and the level of competitiveness of agricultural enterprises, however, the degree of influence of land quality differs significantly in different soil-climatic conditions. Unlike the area of inadequate humidification (Kharkiv region), in the zone of sufficient moisture supply (Volyn and Chernihiv region), in absolute and relative terms, the increase in land quality had a greater impact on the sub-index of competitiveness by yield, than the increase in production intensity. At the same time, with a low intensity of production, it is almost impossible to achieve a zone of competitiveness even at high quality land. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, one- and two-factor linear and nonlinear (quadratic) econometric models were developed, which made it possible to carry out quantitative assessment of the impact of land quality on the formation of competitiveness of agricultural enterprises in various soil-climatic zones of Ukraine. The provision on the formation of competitiveness of agricultural enterprises on lands of different quality, taking into account the level of production intensity, was further developed. Practical value / implications. The developed econometric models can be used for (i) estimation and forecasting of the level of competitiveness of agricultural enterprises depending on the parameters of land quality and intensity of production; (ii) determining the effect of measures to improve the quality of land on the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises; (iii) determining the impact of land degradation (quality deterioration) on competitiveness of farms; (iv) identification of reserves to improve competitiveness.

The results of the studies are presented, during which it was found that in recent years the Russian Federation constituent entity climatic conditions have changed significantly. This is confirmed by the data provided by the Roshydromet and the given calculations. All this influenced the agroecological potential, which is involved in assessing the integrated agricultural land quality indicator. A climatic indicators comprehensive study result was the three agro-climatic zones identification on the subject territory with agroecological potential 8.1-9.2. The basis for identifying new agro-climatic assessment zones was the change in the agroecological potential indicator by 0.5 units or more. The above calculations confirm the assumption about the subject zoning the territory possibility into the three zones. A territory new zoning is proposed, and, consequently, the agroecological potential new values.

This unlicensed gold mining activity (PETI) can have a positive impact on the economy of the community, in the form of increased incomes so that it can improve the welfare of the community. However, besides having a positive impact, PETI's activities will harm the environment around the mining area. The negative impact caused by mining activities is environmental damage in the form of a decrease in land quality as indicated by a decrease in physical, chemical and biological soil quality. The purpose of this study was to determine the nutrient content and the total of microbes in former PETI soils in sub-districts of the Kuantan Singingi Regency. The parameters observed were analysis of nutrient content consisting of analysis of sand, dust, clay, soil pH, C-organic, N-total, P2O5, K2O, interchangeable cations, CEC, a saturation of bases, Aluminum Saturation, and analysis of total soil microbes. The results showed that the Singingi sub-district, Central Kuantan sub-district, Sentoja sub-district, and Logas Tanah Darat sub-district has the texture of sand soil clay to sand, the content of pH H2O Land classified as fertility is very sour, C-Organic (%), Ca-dd, Nitrogen-Total (%), Mg-dd and CEC with very low fertility criteria, C/N Ratio with low to very low fertility criteria, K-dd content with low criteria, Na-dd with moderate to very high criteria, aluminum saturation is very high with wet saturation the fertility criteria are low. The total microbes in the Sub-district of Sentoja Raya and Logas Tanah Darat Sub-district are much higher than Singingi Sub-district and Central Kuantan Sub-district.

Revealing the mechanism under the occurrence of farmland abandonment from the perspective of farming household diversity is conducive to proposing well-directed farmland protection policies. With a thorough consideration and study of cases in some hilly mountainous areas in China, this paper uses behaviour decision models of farming households to systematically understand and analyse the behavioural mechanism leading to farmland abandonment by different types of farming households, including aged households, stable part-time households, unstable part-time households and pure households. The mechanism is empirically analysed with a logistic regression model by household survey data collected from Jiangxi and Guizhou, 2 Chinese provinces, and the results observed as follows: (1) age is a key determinant of farmland abandonment of aged households, and as the age of farm labourers increases by one year, the probability of farmland abandonment increases by 8.5 %; (2) off-farm labourers is a key determinant of farmland abandonment of stable part-time households, and for each additional number of off-farm labourers, the abandonment probability increases by 41.4 %; (3) plot features such as land quality, irrigation and distance to home, are the main determinants affecting farmland abandonment of pure households; and (4) high possibility for unstable part-time households not to abandon farmland. A series of policy measures targeted for diverse farming households are therefore finally proposed to alleviate the farmland abandonment in hilly mountainous areas and other areas with similar problems.

Whether governments have informal preferences toward firms when allocating land resources and the effects of such preferences on regional development remain unclear, particularly in countries with weak formal institutions. This paper investigates the government’s informal preferences in land allocations in China. Substantial evidence is found that politically connected firms are preferred to win land auctions at lower prices due to two different reasons. These preferences are informally achieved through a two-stage auction mechanism rather than formal bid preference programs, and result in the asymmetrical allocation of urban land in terms of land quality, quantity, and price, across politically and non-politically connected firms in China. The state-owned enterprises are allocated poor quality land parcels at 55% land price discounts. In comparison, the manager-based politically connected firms are allocated regular land parcels at 6% price discounts, and other firms without connections with the government are allocated regular land at higher prices.

Degradation by wind erosion is detrimental to both soil and land quality in arid regions. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of some organic amendment - poultry manure (PM), farmyard manure (FYM) and rice husk (RH) and were applied on the sandy soil surface at 1 and 3 cm thickness and control (no treatment; C) to make clear the sand particles stabilization. Total soil nitrogen, organic carbon (OC), and pH in the PM and FYM treatments exceeded those in the RH treatment. Soil hardness in the PM compost was 6.7, 1.4, and 2.7 times the mean determined in the control, FYM and RH, respectively, whereas CaCO3 in the PM treatment was 56 and 69% higher than the levels in FYM and RH, respectively. Soil hardness varied in the order of PM 3 cm > PM 1 cm > FYM 1 cm > FYM 3 cm > RH 1 cm > RH 3 cm > C. The erodible fraction (0.85–1.0 mm) decreased linearly with increase in soil hardness (R2 > 0.9), OC, CaCO3. Farmyard manure and PM composts decreased the erodible fractions by up to 5 and 15%, respectively. Surface application of PM compost is an effectively stabilized the sand particles during this study.

Maintaining sufficient farmland to ensure food security and a strong rural economy is crucial for China. At the national as well as regional levels, we compared the quality of the land converted from and to farmland during the period 1986–2005, thus quantifying the change in farmland quality directly attributable to land-use conversion. Specifically, we compared land cover maps compiled for the initial and final years of the study period at a 1:250,000 scale by institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and combined this with national land quality assessment data compiled at the beginning of the period. Comparison of the land cover maps revealed that over the 20-year period 12·9 Mha of farmland were converted to other land uses and 14·0 Mha of new farmland were brought under cultivation. Large net increases in farmland area occurred in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, together contributing 3·5 Mha of the net increase in farmland area. Several developed provinces, e.g. Beijing (−21·20%), Shanghai (−15·81%), Zhejiang (−9·85%), Guangdong (−7·79%), and Tianjin (−6·35%), experienced rapid farmland decreases. Although there was a net increase in farmland, the most suitable and productive farmland decreased by 1·8% while low-quality farmland increased by 1·4%. Thus, focusing solely on maintaining the total farmland area did not prevent overall loss of a substantial amount of high-quality farmland. Farmland protection policies should therefore take into account both farmland quantity and quality. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Land is a scarce resource in the highlands of Ethiopia. Its sustainable use is highly affected by bio-physical and institutional factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate farmers' perceptions about land quality, land fragmentation and tenure systems and their influences on sustainable land management (SLM) investments in the North Western Ethiopian Highlands. The study is based on a detailed farm survey among 300 households and 1,700 parcels in three watersheds. Simple descriptive statistics were applied to analyse the perception of farmers about land-related factors. A multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the effect of land-related factors on the interdependent investment decisions of SLM practices (Bunds, Compost/Manure and Fertilizer) using a multiple parcel-level survey. The study shows that on average, sample households managed 4·54 parcels in different locations with an average parcel size of 0·26¿ha. The MVP model analysis indicates that farmers invest a combination of practices at parcel level by considering substitution and complementarity effects of the practices. The results also reveal how land quality (e.g.¿slope and soil fertility status), land fragmentation (parcel size and distance of parcel from homestead) and tenure arrangements influence farmers' investments in SLM practices. The overall results indicate that farm land attributes promote or hinder investments, and tenure systems regulate the decisions about investments. Policy makers should take into consideration these various land-related factors in designing and implementing SLM policies and programmes.

Land use parameters determine to a large extent not only the scale, but also the efficiency of agricultural production. The article gives a description of the size and other qualitative characteristics of land use resulting from the agrarian transformations. The area of arable land used, including rented and owned by agricultural organizations, is shown by natural agricultural zones and the region as a whole. Based on the analysis of the influence of the size of arable land on the farm, the bonitet score, the technological properties of arable plots and their remoteness from production centers on the productivity and efficiency of crop production, the parameters providing effective and sustainable development of the industry were substantiated. In general, the trend of greater efficiency of crop production with a large land use is confirmed. As a result of the analysis, the marginal parameters of land quality were determined (bonitet score, index of estimated costs of the distance from economic centers to arable land), ensuring efficient crop production. These data were obtained for all natural and agricultural zones of the region. The validity of the parameters is determined by the state of agricultural production and is recommended for the next 5 years. In the future, such an analysis should be repeated periodically. The parameters obtained as a result of the study are recommended for use in the management of agricultural production and land use. They allow one to determine the main priorities in the agricultural policy of the region, including objects of state and regional support for agricultural production.