evaluate the importance of land as a resource (any two points)
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Answer:
Land evaluation is the process of assessment of land performance when used for specific purposes, involving the execution and interpretation of surveys and studies of land forms, soils, vegetation, climate and other aspects of land in order to identify and make a comparison of promising kinds of land use in terms
Answer:
Land quality assessment and land evaluation have been important programmes in FAO since its foundation in 1945. By 1970 many countries had developed their own systems of land capability classification and land evaluation, making international exchange and comparison of information difficult. Some form of standardization was obviously required. The International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI) in Wageningen, which had traditionally concentrated on water issues, now wanted to pay more attention to "land" issues and sought contact with FAO for that purpose. This resulted in a joint project to develop a Framework for Land Evaluation, published in 1976.
The Framework drew substantially from earlier concepts and methodologies developed, e.g., in Brazil and Iran. It was subsequently applied in many countries in which FAO was active through UNDP-financed projects, and also in several bilaterally financed projects on natural resources inventories and evaluation.
In the years following publication of the Framework, detailed guidelines were published for its application for forestry, rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, and extensive grazing (FAO, 1983; 1984; 1985; 1991). Guidelines for Land-use Planning were published as FAO Development Series 1 (FAO, 1993a).
During these years the concepts, principles and definitions of land, land utilization types, land qualities, land suitability classification and land evaluation procedures were already specified but in some circles the notion of a single, overall "land quality" in the sense of health-of-land has come to the fore.
Discussing differences in approach, and reconfirming or adapting existing concepts and definitions is one purpose of the present meeting. A second purpose is to raise awareness within FAO about interest in the World Bank (WB), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in the use of indicators for sustainable agriculture and rural development. A third purpose is to inform these same organizations of FAO technical activities relevant to indicators.