[Avodah] Elimelech's land

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

.
I expect that this thread will have little or nothing to do with the
halachic questions we discussed recently. I am asking questions that I
think are based on purely financial and economic considerations:

Why was is so important for Naomi to find a goel/redeemer for
Elimelech's land? Why didn't she just move back there and start
farming?

I suppose it was pretty desolate after a ten-year famine, but did she
even try? She must have at least gone there to see the place, if for
no other reason than to be sure that no squatters took over while she
was gone. Without making sure of such things, how could she even hope
that anyone (even a goel) would buy it?

Maybe she expected to get a better profit from Boaz than she'd get
from farming it herself, but maybe there are other answers?

Akiva Miller