In South Sulawesi, the program for maize development (called Gong) has recently been implemented by the provincial government, as part of promoting regional food security program. In some parts of the region, cultivation of maize (Zea mays L.) has long been practiced in different soil environments including marginal land. To help address this phenomenon, there is a need for information that will allow land managers to identify both the inherent suitability of land for maize production and development, and the spatial distribution of land areas where possible development can be implemented taking into account present land use types. This paper describes a spatial based qualitative suitability evaluation of marginal soils for maize production and development at a region where marginal land predominates. The research project implements land suitability evaluation method based on the spatial-qualitative query approaches in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The main sources of data bases used include digital topographic map, soil map and soil characteristics derived from available data at reconnaissance level and semi detailed survey, climate data, and satellite imagery. The results of analysis of potential development area for maize cultivation show that more than 90 percent of study region are suitable (at S2 and S3 classes) for maize cultivation. Comparing to the existing maize cultivation and land use types on the ground, about one third of the area is available for maize cultication (extensification). This study reveals that there are some limiting factors in term of chemical soil characteristics that can still be improved, but there will be almost no limitation in terms of land cover type for maize development. This spatial based method demonstrated in this study can be further used at a micro scale where the spatial data are available with a good mapping accuracy.