The study includes the development and justification of specific measures aimed at increasing the efficiency of land use to ensure sustainable development of rural areas. It contains justification for research methodology, analysis of methodological and scientific information, assessment of the environmental and economic efficiency of using land resources using the example of the Krasnodar Territory. The interpretation of the concept of sustainability of rural territories is given, a causal relationship between increasing the efficiency of land use and ensuring the sustainability of rural territories, including economic, social and environmental components, is established. To increase the efficiency of land use, the methodology for identifying unused land plots has been clarified, which is applied on the example of the Rodnikovsky rural settlement of the Kurganinsky district, where unused arable land overgrown with woody and shrubby vegetation has been established, resulting in an annual lost profit of 18.1 million rubles. The necessity of developing directions for improving the efficiency of land use to ensure sustainable development of rural areas is substantiated. The scientific novelty of the work consists in substantiating the categorical apparatus of research and methodological approaches to assessing the effectiveness of land use, determining the motivation of land users (landowners) to organize the rational use of land to ensure sustainable development of rural areas on the example of Krasnodar Territory.