Abstract: A method for land management comprising measuring, as a measure of effectiveness of the method, soil quality of a soil sample collected from land under management by determining fungal; bacterial ratio of said soil sample by substrate induced respiration combined with selective inhibition by multiple soluble inhibitors selected with reference to the land under management to measure soil quality of the land under such management. A nutrient application programme for a specified crop is controlled on the basis of determined fungal bacterial ratio. Such measure can be employed to identify the availability of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur to plants as such availability is mediated by soil microorganisms. Action to increase plant availability of nutrients and soil biological activity may be initiated if required. The measurements may also be an indicator of sustainability of land management method. Application of the method to olive and wheat growing is demonstrated.