Prime land, land evaluation and land use policy

Excerpt

MUCH of the widespread concern about prime agricultural land among conservationists as well as agriculturalists, planners, government officials, and the general public (6,9,14,23) stems from the realization that this land is being converted to other uses. Given the rate and often irreversible nature of this conversion, there is growing uncertainty about the ability of the land resource to meet society's future demands for the goods, services, and amenities derived from the land (10, 11). Thus the cries to preserve land considered prime for agriculture.

These pleas to preserve prime land rest on the assumption that the mechanism by which the use of land is determined is unsatisfactory or inadequate (17). Considerable attention has been given to procedures, including zoning, preferential assessment, and other tax measures, for protecting prime land (1,2, 8,13,20). But it is by no means universally accepted that such intervention in the land allocation system is necessary (5,6,7,22); It remains unclear as to what constitutes prime land and what societal needs if any, would not be satisfied if certain lands were not preserved for agriculture or other activities (6,14,21). How important it is that certain …