ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly reviews the use of conventional land rating systems in rural land-use planning and presents some recently developed methods for rating the importance of land for agricultural use. The criteria which determine the extent to which particular types of land are of critical importance for agriculture can be represented by two sets of factors. One set consists of those factors that determine the level of demand for food, such as population growth and consumer tastes. The other set consists of factors that limit agriculture's capacity for responding to food needs as, for example, the area and productivity of the land base. A measure of criticalness is needed that would indicate whether there are land areas of critical importance for agriculture in the sense that the fulfillment of agricultural commodity demands hinges upon particular types and areas of land being available for food production.
