The present study used water use efficiency (WUE) as an indicator of land quality index (LQI), through a composite Water Use Efficiency (GMWUE), on the line of land evaluation index of Food and Agriculture Organization. The GMWUE is a multiplicative function of WUE of individual crop/cropping system raised within a micro agro-edaphic environment (AEE). A relative LQI scale has been developed considering LQI for the most productive land as 100 and accordingly the LQI of other land has been fixed. The experimental cropping systems were cotton (sole), sorghum-wheat, soyabean-wheat, sorghum-gram and soyabean-gram for two years under normal rainfall in typical shrink-swell soils of Nagpur district of Maharashtra, India. The soyabean-wheat system had highest water use (WU) of 586.8 to 755.9 mm followed by sorghum-wheat, soyabean-gram, sorghum-gram and sole cotton. The WUE was highest for sole cotton (4.8-11.5 kg ha -1 mm -1) followed by soyabean-gram (3.7-10.16 kg ha -1 mm -1). The LQI in terms of GMWUE was 100 for Vertic Haplustepts occurring in the lower piedmont plain whereas it was 51 for Typic Haplustepts and 48 for Typic Haplusterts representing the upper piedmont and valley plain, respectively.
