Land utilization types (LUT)



The suitability of land relates to the performance of the land use system, which involves two components, the land unit and land utilization type. Along with economic development and scientific progress, land utilization is continuously changing, while the suitability of land is also changing. Therefore, land utilization must be predetermined and described before the assessment of the suitability of land. Land Utilization Type (LUT) has been defined by FAO (1984) as follows: "A Land Utilization Type consists of a set of technical specifications within a socio-economic setting". Different LUTs have different requirements for land quality. If the quality of a land unit matches the land use requirement of a defined LUT, its suitability is high.

LUT descriptions comprise sets of alternative activities available to achieve specified objectives. The first step in an AEZ application is the selection and description of land utilization types (LUT) to be considered.

The selection of crops for the present Global AEZ study is based on three considerations, namely: (a) to include the most important food crops, (b) to cover a wide range of natural environments, including those in temperate and boreal zones, and (c) to include, for backward compatibility with earlier AEZ work, all crops previously covered. The Global AEZ study distinguishes in total 154 rain-fed crop, fodder and grassland LUTs, each at three generic levels of inputs and management (high, intermediate and low). For the irrigation land potential assessment, crop LUTs are used at two generic levels of inputs and management (high and intermediate) . Table 8

High-level inputs/advanced management:

Under the high input, advanced management assumption, the farming system is mainly market oriented. Commercial production is a management objective. Production is based on improved high yielding varieties, is fully mechanized with low labour intensity and uses optimum applications of nutrients and chemical pest, disease and weed control.

  • Production modes: Rain-fed or irrigated crop production.
  • Market orientation: Commercial production.
  • Capital intensity: High.
  • Labour intensity: Low (family labour costed if any).
  • Power source: Complete mechanization including harvesting (where applicable)
  • Technology: High yielding cultivars, including hybrids. Optimum fertilizer application. Chemical pest, disease and weed control. Full conservation measures.
  • Infrastructure: Market access essential. High level of advisory services and application of research findings.
  • Land holdings: Large, consolidated.
  • Income level: High.

Intermediate-level inputs/improved management:

Under the intermediate input, improved management assumption, the farming system is partly market oriented. Production for subsistence plus commercial sale is a management objective. Production is based on improved varieties, on manual labour with hand tools and/or animal traction and some mechanization, is medium labour intensive, uses some fertilizer application and chemical pest disease and weed control, adequate fallows and some conservation measures.

  • Production modes: Rain-fed or irrigated crop production.
  • Market orientation: Surplus production to markets.
  • Capital intensity: Intermediate with credit on accessible terms.
  • Labour intensity: Medium including uncosted family labour.
  • Power source: Manual labour with hand tools and/or animal traction with improved implements, some mechanization.
  • Technology: Improved cultivars as available; appropriate extension packages. Including some fertilizer application and some chemical pest, disease and weed control. Adequate fallow periods and some conservation measures
  • Infrastructure: Some market access necessary. Access to demonstration plots and advisory services.
  • Land holdings: Small sometimes fragmented.
  • Income level: Moderate.

Low-level inputs/traditional management:

Under the low input, traditional management assumption, the farming system is largely subsistence based and not necessarily market oriented. Production is based on the use of traditional cultivars (if improved cultivars are used, they are treated in the same way as local cultivars), labour intensive techniques, and no application of nutrients, no use of chemicals for pest and disease control and minimum conservation measures.

  • Production modes: Rain-fed crop production only.
  • Market orientation: Subsistence production with limited marketable surplus.
  • Capital intensity: Low.
  • Labour intensity: High including uncosted family labour.
  • Power source: Manual labour with hand.
  • Technology: Traditional cultivars. No fertilizer or chemical pest, disease and weed control. Fallow periods. Minimum conservation measures.
  • Infrastructure: Market accessibility not necessary. Inadequate advisory services.
  • Land holdings: Small, fragmented.
  • Income level: Low.

Relevant crop adaptability and crop requirement data are stored in a crop catalog database. These data sets include for each crop/LUT (and by input level where applicable) the following information:

  1. Crop characteristics: crop growth cycle lengths; relative lengths of crop development stages; photosynthetic pathway; crop adaptability group (defining maximum rates of photosynthesis); development stage specific coefficients relating crop water requirements to reference evapotranspiration (Kc-factors, see FAO (1992a)); moisture stress related yield reduction coefficients (Ky-factors, see FAO (1992a)) Appendix XII;

  2. Parameters describing for both rain-fed and irrigated LUTs, thermal requirements, growing period requirements, and soil and terrain requirements, respectively applicable in tropical, subtropical, temperate and boreal environments, and
  3. Factors converting biomass to useful products and commodity aggregates: harvest index; food content coefficients (energy, protein); extraction/conversion rates; crop by product/residue coefficients, commodity aggregation weights.

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